Synthesis, properties and performance evaluation of vanadium carbide MXene as supercapacitor electrodes

Abstract MXenes, a new family of 2-dimensional materials extends its potential in various applications. The present work reports a detailed study on the synthesis, properties and electrochemical performance of Vanadium carbide (V4C3) MXene as a supercapacitor electrode. The Vanadium carbide MXene was synthesised by etching intermediate “A-Aluminium” layer form the parental MAX phase precursor vanadium aluminium carbide using HF etching. The synthesised MXene materials were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) for phase identification and structural confirmation; FE-SEM and TEM for the morphological analysis. TGA was employed to understand the thermal behaviour and stability of the sample. The results revealed that the synthesised samples are in layered structure. XRD shows a shift in peaks attributing to the aluminium etching processes which was also supported by TEM as increase in the d-spacing. Furthermore, the MXene electrodes were prepared and tested for its electrochemical behaviour towards supercapacitor electrodes by using techniques like cyclic voltammetry, chrono potentiometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy proving as a potential electrode material for electrochemical energy storage application.