By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept

Science, Space & Technology

Space Science Digital
Contact
Search
  • Home
  • Environment

    Listen to space with these new sonification videos

    June 25, 2023

    1st dark stars?! Maybe, say astrophysicists

    July 16, 2023

    Powerful winds from cool stars can threaten exoplanets

    August 10, 2023

    Most distant galactic magnetic field yet, in galaxy 9io9

    September 10, 2023
  • Space Flight

    The most powerful space explosion ever seen keeps baffling astronomers

    March 28, 2023

    EGS launch team looking forward to working with Artemis II crew

    April 4, 2023

    Lyrids meteor shower: What it is and how to watch it between 15 and 29 April

    April 15, 2023

    Emirates Mars Mission captures amazing images of Mars’s moon Deimos

    April 24, 2023
  • Cosmology

    How long will the 2024 total solar eclipse last?

    April 8, 2023

    Twinkling Stars Supply the Dust That Leads to Life

    April 14, 2023

    The Milky Way has Trapped the Large Magellanic Cloud With its Gravity. What Comes Next?

    April 23, 2023

    What Would be in a Moon Salad?

    April 28, 2023
  • Latest
  • About Us
Reading: New proton hydration structure determined
Share
Aa
Space Science DigitalSpace Science Digital
  • Environment
  • Space Flight
  • Cosmology
  • Technology
Search
  • Home
  • Categories
    • Environment
    • Technology
    • Cosmology
    • Space Flight
  • More Foxiz
    • Blog Index
    • Forums
    • Complaint
    • Sitemap
Follow US
© 2023 Space Science Digital. All Rights Reserved.
Space Science Digital > Blog > Technology > New proton hydration structure determined
Technology

New proton hydration structure determined

By Aimee Daly March 13, 2023 6 Min Read
Share


Contents
Promising materials: PseudocapacitorsVibrational modes analyzedFast diffusion explained
The experiment: Infrared light excites protons in the water film, which move between the Ti3C2-MXene layers. Their oscillation patterns show that they behave differently than in a thicker film of water. Credit: M. Künsting /HZB

MXenes are able to store large amounts of electrical energy like batteries and to charge and discharge rather quickly like a supercapacitor. They are thus a very interesting class of materials for energy storage. The material is structured like a kind of pastry, with the MXene layers separated by thin water films. A team at HZB has now investigated how protons migrate in the water films confined between the layers of the material and enable charge transport. Their results have been published in the journal Nature Communications and may accelerate the optimization of these kinds of energy storage materials.

One of the biggest challenges for a climate-neutral energy supply is the storage of electrical energy. Conventional batteries can hold large amounts of energy, but the charging and discharging processes take time. Supercapacitors, on the other hand, charge very quickly but are limited in the amount of stored energy. Only in the last few years has a new class of materials been discussed that combines the advantages of batteries with those of supercapacitors, named pseudocapacitors.

Promising materials: Pseudocapacitors

Among pseudocapacitive materials, so-called MXenes consisting of a large family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides appear particularly promising. Their structure resembles a puff pastry, with the individual layers separated by a thin film of water that enables the transport of charges.

Titanium carbide MXenes, especially, are conductive and their layered structure combined with highly negatively-charged hydrophilic surfaces offers a unique material in which positively charged ions such as protons can diffuse very efficiently. The MXenes used in this study were synthesized in the group of Prof. Yury Gogotsi in Drexel University.

Over the last years, this property has been used to store and release energy from protons at unprecedented rates in acidic environment. It remains though unclear if the charges are mostly stored based on proton adsorption at the MXene surface or through desolation of proton in the MXene interlayer.

Due to its two-dimensional geometry, the 2-3 layer thick water film trapped between the MXene layers is expected to solvate protons differently from bulk water that we classically know. While this confinement effect is supposed to play a role in the fast diffusion of protons inside MXene materials, it has been impossible until now to characterize protons inside a MXene electrode during charging and discharging.

Vibrational modes analyzed

The team led by Dr. Tristan Petit at HZB has now succeeded in doing this for the first time by analyzing vibrational modes of protons excited by infrared light. Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Mailis Lounasvuori has developed an operando electrochemical cell that she used to analyze protons and water inside titanium carbide MXenes at BESSY II during the charging and discharging processes. In the process, she also succeeded in distilling out the special signature of the protons in the confined water between the MXene layers.

“These vibrational patterns are very different from those we would observe for protons in a three-dimensional water environment,” says Mailis Lounasvuori.

“The fact that water molecules absorb infrared radiation particularly strongly while MXene emits very low amount of light in this energy range made IR spectroscopy ideally suited to our question,” Petit explains.

Fast diffusion explained

This unusual hydration structure, showing that protons are solvated by fewer water molecules under confinement than in bulk water, suggest that proton de-solvation upon intercalation between MXene layers may contribute to pseudocapacitive energy storage in acidic environment.

It may also explain why protons diffuse particularly fast within MXene materials, which is related to their fast dis/charging time. Beyond energy storage applications, this work shows that MXenes are an ideal platform to investigate fundamental properties of confined chemical species, which certainly have other new chemical properties that remains to be discovered.

This technique will be further applied to other types of cations beyond protons (such as the Li+ ion) diffusing inside MXene materials to unravel new pseudocapacitive energy storage mechanisms.

More information:
Mailis Lounasvuori et al, Vibrational signature of hydrated protons confined in MXene interlayers, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36842-0. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36842-0

Provided by
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres


Citation:
MXene interlayers: New proton hydration structure determined (2023, March 13)
retrieved 13 March 2023
from https://phys.org/news/2023-03-mxene-interlayers-proton-hydration.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.



TAGGED: determined, hydration, proton, structure

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
[mc4wp_form]
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Aimee Daly March 13, 2023
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Email Copy Link Print
Leave a comment Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

[mc4wp_form]

HOT NEWS

The most powerful space explosion ever seen keeps baffling astronomers

Space Flight
March 28, 2023

Is that this black gap jet making stars explode?

Again to Article Listing Greater than twice the anticipated quantity of novae have been discovered…

October 27, 2024

NASA Says Spacecraft Crash Test Successfully Changes Asteroid’s Orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions…

October 11, 2022

World-Saving Spacecraft Passes Test

NASA says its DART spacecraft successfully shifted the path of an asteroid. For us earthlings,…

October 11, 2022

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Staff develops transistors with sliding ferroelectricity based mostly on polarity-switchable molybdenum disulfide

Credit score: Yang et al. (Nature Electronics, 2023). Over the previous few years, engineers have been making an attempt to…

Technology
December 23, 2023

Unimolecular self-assembled hemicyanine-oleic acid conjugate acts to eradicate most cancers stem cells: Research

Schematic illustration of unimolecular self-assembled CyOA NPs enhanced phototoxicity to CSCs by implementing oxygen-economical PDT. Credit score: Analysis Most cancers…

Technology
December 22, 2023

Nanotechnology approaches for creating biodeterioration-resistant wooden

chematic illustration of methods utilized for growth of biodeterioration-resistant wooden. Credit score: Ayyoob Arpanaei a,*, Qiliang Fu a,b, Tripti Singh…

Technology
December 21, 2023

Scientists create chiral polyoxometalate-based frameworks with enhanced stability and catalytic exercise

The chiral POM-based frameworks have enhanced stability, chiral catalysis, chiral separation, and proton conductivity. Credit score: Polyoxometalates, Tsinghua College Press…

Technology
December 21, 2023
We use our own and third-party cookies to improve our services, personalise your advertising and remember your preferences.
  • Jobs Board
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Exclusives
  • Learn How
  • Support
  • Solutions
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Editorial Policy
  • Marketing Solutions
  • Industry Intelligence

Follow US: 

Space Science Digital

Welcome to spacescience.digital, A source for the latest news and developments in the exciting field of space science. Our blog covers a wide range of topics, from the latest space missions and discoveries to updates on technology and scientific breakthroughs. We are passionate about sharing the wonders of the universe with our readers and providing them with engaging and informative content. Join us on this fascinating journey as we explore the mysteries of space and the frontiers of human knowledge.

© 2024 Space Science Digital. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?