Issue 38, 2022

First observation on emergence of strong room-temperature ferroelectricity and multiferroicity in 2D-Ti3C2Tx free-standing MXene film

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) multiferroics are key candidate materials towards advancement of smart technology. Here, we employed a simple synthesis approach to address the long-awaited dream of developing ferroelectric and multiferroic 2D materials, especially in the new class of materials called MXenes. The etched Ti3C2Tx MXene was first synthesized after HF-treatment followed by a delamination process for successful synthesis of free-standing Ti3C2Tx film. The free-standing film was then exposed to air at room-temperature and heated at different temperatures to form a TiO2 layer derived from the Ti3C2Tx MXene itself. The ferroelectric measurement showed a clear polarization hysteresis loop at room-temperature. Also, due to the reported ferromagnetic behavior of Ti3C2Tx MXene, our composite could show multiferroic properties at room-temperature. The magnetoelectric coupling test was also performed that showed a clear, switchable spontaneous polarization under applied magnetic field. TiO2 is reported to be an incipient ferroelectric that assumes a ferroelectric phase in composite form. The structural and morphological analysis confirmed successful synthesis of free-standing film and the Raman spectroscopy revealed the formation of different phases of TiO2 and the observed ferroelectricity could be due to structural deformation as a result of the formation of this new phase. The measured value of remanent polarization is 0.5 μC cm−2. This is the first report on the existence of a ferroelectric phase and multiferroic coupling in 2D free-standing MXene film at room-temperature which opens-up the possibility of 2D material-based electric and magnetic data storage applications at room-temperature.

Graphical abstract: First observation on emergence of strong room-temperature ferroelectricity and multiferroicity in 2D-Ti3C2Tx free-standing MXene film

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jūl. 2022
Accepted
16 Aug. 2022
First published
30 Aug. 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 24571-24578

First observation on emergence of strong room-temperature ferroelectricity and multiferroicity in 2D-Ti3C2Tx free-standing MXene film

R. Tahir, S. A. Zahra, U. Naeem, D. Akinwande and S. Rizwan, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 24571 DOI: 10.1039/D2RA04428E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements