Laser-sculptured ultrathin transition metal carbide layers for energy storage and energy harvesting applications

Xining Zang (), Cuiying Jian, Taishan Zhu, Zheng Fan, Wanlin Wang, Minsong Wei, Buxuan Li, Mateo Follmar Diaz, Paul Ashby, Zhengmao Lu, Yao Chu, Zizhao Wang, Xinrui Ding, Yingxi Xie, Juhong Chen, J. Nathan Hohman, Mohan Sanghadasa, Jeffrey C. Grossman () and Liwei Lin ()
Additional contact information
Xining Zang: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cuiying Jian: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Taishan Zhu: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Zheng Fan: University of Houston
Wanlin Wang: Shenzhen University
Minsong Wei: University of California Berkley
Buxuan Li: University of California Berkley
Mateo Follmar Diaz: Micro and Nanosystems, D-MAVT, ETHZ
Paul Ashby: Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Zhengmao Lu: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Yao Chu: University of California Berkley
Zizhao Wang: Harvard University
Xinrui Ding: University of California Berkley
Yingxi Xie: University of California Berkley
Juhong Chen: University of California Berkley
J. Nathan Hohman: Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Mohan Sanghadasa: U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command
Jeffrey C. Grossman: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Liwei Lin: University of California Berkley

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Ultrathin transition metal carbides with high capacity, high surface area, and high conductivity are a promising family of materials for applications from energy storage to catalysis. However, large-scale, cost-effective, and precursor-free methods to prepare ultrathin carbides are lacking. Here, we demonstrate a direct pattern method to manufacture ultrathin carbides (MoCx, WCx, and CoCx) on versatile substrates using a CO2 laser. The laser-sculptured polycrystalline carbides (macroporous, ~10–20 nm wall thickness, ~10 nm crystallinity) show high energy storage capability, hierarchical porous structure, and higher thermal resilience than MXenes and other laser-ablated carbon materials. A flexible supercapacitor made of MoCx demonstrates a wide temperature range (−50 to 300 °C). Furthermore, the sculptured microstructures endow the carbide network with enhanced visible light absorption, providing high solar energy harvesting efficiency (~72 %) for steam generation. The laser-based, scalable, resilient, and low-cost manufacturing process presents an approach for construction of carbides and their subsequent applications.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10999-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10999-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10999-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().