Facile Tailoring of Surface Terminations of MXenes by Doping Nb Element: Toward Extraordinary Pseudocapacitance Performance

MXenes show promising potential in supercapacitors due to their unique two-dimensional (2D) structure and abundant surface functional groups. However, most studies about MXenes have focused on tailoring surface structures by alternating synthesis methods or post-etch treatments, and little is known about the inherent relationship between surface groups and M elements. Herein, we propose a simple and novel strategy to adjust the surface structure of few-layered MXene flakes by adding a small amount of Nb element. Because of the strong affinity between Nb and O elements, the as-received V1.8Nb0.2CTx and Ti2.7Nb0.3C2Tx MXenes have much fewer -F functional groups and a higher O content than V2CTx and Ti3C2Tx MXenes, respectively. Thus, both V1.8Nb0.2CTx and Ti2.7Nb0.3C2Tx MXenes show enhanced pseudocapacitance performance. Especially, V1.8Nb0.2CTx delivers an ultrahigh volumetric capacitance of 1698 F/cm3 at a scan rate of 2 mV/s. Moreover, benefiting from the high activity of MAX precursors obtained through a fast self-propagating high-temperature synthesis, the etching time to produce V-based MXenes is much shorter than that in previous reports. Therefore, the results presented here are applicable to the surface engineering and rational design of 2D MXene materials and develop them into promising, cost-effective electrode materials for supercapacitors or other energy-storage equipment.