Yury Gogotsi

Yury Gogotsi is a Distinguished University Professor and Charles T. and Ruth M. Bach Endowed Chair in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University (Philadelphia, USA). He is the founding Director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute. He received his MS (1984) and PhD (1986) from Kyiv Polytechnic and a DSc degree from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1995. Together with his students and colleagues, he made principal contributions to the development of materials for electrochemical capacitors and other energy storage devices, discovered MXenes, demonstrated the tuning of structure and porosity of carbide-derived carbons, and developed new processes for the synthesis, surface modification, and purification of nanotubes and nanodiamonds. He also published the first microscopic observation of water inside carbon nanotubes, discovered polygonal nanotubes (graphite polyhedral crystals), and shaped the field of high-pressure surface science.

He is recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science and Chemistry and a Citations Laureate in Physics by Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science). He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Ceramic Prize from the World Academy of Ceramics, the Materials Research Society (MRS) Medal, the Jan Czochralski Award from the European MRS, the European Carbon Association Award, the American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in the Chemistry of Materials, etc. He has been elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, World Academy of Ceramics, European Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, and other professional societies. He holds honorary doctorates from several European Universities.

ABSTRACT

2D Ceramics – Nanoscale Bricks that Will Shape the Future Technology

Materials define the progress of humanity as access to new materials enables new tools and technologies. In the Silicon Age, electronic and computer technologies greatly accelerated the technical progress, changing our life. What is next? The age of nanomaterials. The era of assembly of new materials, structures and devices from nanoscale building blocks providing any imaginable, but impossible in conventional materials, combinations of properties and functions. Assembly from nanoparticles will allow integration of electronics, energy harvesting and storage in the same device, creating self-powered internet of things and wearable internet, at the same time minimizing the waste during manufacturing. Numerous 2D materials, including oxides, graphene, and carbides/nitrides (MXenes) are available nowadays and thousands more coming. They provide very attractive building blocks, because they can be assembled into dense structures, just like bricks in the wall. 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides (MXenes) have been expanding rapidly since their discovery at Drexel University in 2011 but have already become the fastest growing family of materials. MXene synthesis can be performed by using aqueous and non-aqueous HF etching of MAX phases, M2A2X and other layered precursors, electrochemical etching in aqueous fluoride or chloride solutions, halogen etching of MAX phases in solution or using high-temperature gases, molten salt etching of MAX, CVD synthesis from metal chlorides and methane or topochemical transformation of 2D oxides, transition metal chalcogenides, or graphene/graphite. This presentation will describe the state of the art in manufacturing those new 2D materials, their delamination into single-layer flakes and assembly into films. MXene-based composite films offer high strength and unique functional properties. The versatile chemistry of the MXene family renders their properties tunable for a large variety of energy-related, electronic, optical, biomedical, and other applications. In particular, the applications of MXenes in electrochemical energy storage and harvesting, electrocatalytic water splitting and water purification/desalination are promising. However, MXene antennas, sensors, actuators, epidermal and implantable electronics as well as coatings for EMI shielding and thermal regulation are equally attractive.