Metallophilic Non?van der Waals Roll?ups Engineered for Long?Life Metal Batteries

A unique metallophilic non?vdW roll?ups of transition metal carbides are developed by metal?bonding MXene roll?ups via a pulsed Joule?heating technology. These non?vdW roll?ups exhibit high thermal stability and unexpected metallophilic property to molten metals, facilitating the formation of thin metal foils with high mechanical tensile strengths. Moreover, the full cells with these metal hybrid electrodes exhibit a long?term cycling stability.Metal hybrid electrodes are promising for high?energy?density batteries owing to their high theoretical capacities. However, their practical employment is hampered by the inherent incompatibility between molten metals and composite materials resulting from the high surface tensions. Herein, unique metallophilic non?van der Waals (non?vdW) roll?ups of transition metal carbides are produced via metal?bonding adjacent atomic layers in scrolled MXenes, featuring a nano?sized hollow structure and abundant surface dangling bonds as well as remarkable thermal stability up to 800 °C. These features enable the formation of chemical bonding and strong capillary forces between the non?vdW roll?ups and molten metals such as Li, Ga, Mg, and their alloys, leading to the unexpected metallophilic property. As a result, the surface tensions of metal?based composites are significantly reduced, facilitating the fabrication of thin metal hybrid foils with high mechanical tensile strengths. For instance, a Mg foil incorporated with non?vdW Al?V2CTx roll?ups exhibits a high tensile strength up to 204 MPa, ?2 times that of bare Mg. When employed as an anode in magnesium batteries, the full cell coupled with the Mo6S8 cathode delivers long?term cycling stability with ?90.0% capacity retention after 500 cycles at 1 C, attributed to the low diffusion resistance of the hybrid electrode.

» Publication Date: 28/11/2025

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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 768737


                   




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