Assembly of Nanofluidic MXene Fibers with Enhanced Ionic Transport and Capacitive Charge Storage by Flake Orientation

MXenes are an emerging class of highly conductive two-dimensional (2D) materials with electrochemical storage features. Oriented macroscopic Ti3C2Tx fibers can be fabricated from a colloidal 2D nematic phase dispersion. The layered conductive Ti3C2Tx fibers are ideal candidates for constructing high-speed ionic transport channels to enhance the electrochemical capacitive charge storage performance. In this work, we assemble Ti3C2Tx fibers with a high degree of flake orientation by a wet spinning process with controlled spinning speeds and morphology of the spinneret. In addition to the effects of cross-linking of magnesium ions between Ti3C2Tx flakes, the electronic conductivity and mechanical strength of the as-prepared fibers have been improved to 7200 S cm–1 and 118 MPa, respectively. The oriented Ti3C2Tx fibers present a volumetric capacitive charge storage capability of up to 1360 F cm–3 even in a Mg-ion based neutral electrolyte, with contributions from both nanofluidic ion transport and Mg-ion intercalation pseudocapacitance. The oriented 2D Ti3C2Tx driven nanofluidic channels with great electronic conductivity and mechanical strength endows the MXene fibers with attributes for serving as conductive ionic cables and active materials for fiber-type capacitive electrochemical energy storage, biosensors, and potentially biocompatible fibrillar tissues.