Production of V2C MXene using a repetitive pattern of V2AlC MAX phase through microwave heating of Al-V2O5-C system

The present work focuses on the preparation of V2C MXene from Al-V2O5-C mixture heated in a microwave and etched under HF-based process. In the first stage of process, microwave heating caused the formation of an uncommon periodic pattern of V2AlC-Al2O3 MAX phase. In the second stage of process the aggressive leaching (temperature of 80 °C for 96 h) was performed in HF to remove the interlayer aluminum and Al2O3 particles as impurities. The leaching was not completed at room temperature even after 24 h. XRD and FESEM analyses confirmed the successful formation of V2C MXene and its distorted layer, respectively. HRTEM, XPS and Raman analyses also confirmed a perfect structure of V2C MXene. It seems that the sintering of compacted Al-V2O5-C mixture in microwave and subsequently aggressive leaching of these samples encourage the formation of periodic pattern of MAX phase together with few-layer V2C MXene. Finally, this work led to the successful preparation of MXene using cheap starting materials and the influence of microwave heating on the reduction of V2O5 by Al which could be a driving force for the formation of periodic pattern in V2AlC.