CAREER: Atomic Precise Engineering of MXenes Toward the Intrinsic Properties

About This Grant

NONTECHNICAL SUMMARY This CAREER award will support research and education activities that advance the understanding of MXenes, an emerging class of atomically thin materials. These materials possess unique combinations of properties: they conduct electricity exceptionally well, interact strongly with light to enable energy conversion, and can be flexed or bent without breaking. These extraordinary characteristics position MXenes as important materials for advancing electronic devices and robotic systems. However, current manufacturing methods produce MXenes with imperfect surfaces, which limits their performance. The research will employ advanced fabrication techniques, artificial intelligence, and innovative engineering approaches to reveal the true capabilities of these materials. The research will focus on three main objectives: 1) developing new methods to create pristine MXenes with clean, controlled surfaces, 2) using artificial intelligence to quickly analyze and understand these materials, and 3) enabling new types of electronic devices and soft robots that take advantage of MXenes' intrinsic properties. By combining this research with educational activities including summer camps for K-12 students, research experiences for undergraduate students, and an open-access course with virtual laboratory experiences, the project creates new scientific knowledge while strongly contributing to workforce development in advanced materials and manufacturing. TECHNICAL SUMMARY The research will advance the fundamental understanding of MXene materials by addressing key challenges in their synthesis, characterization, and property measurement. The scientific problem centers on creating and studying pristine MXenes - a goal that has remained elusive due to limitations in current fabrication and analysis methods. To overcome these challenges, the project will develop atomic-precise fabrication methods, including plasma-assisted atomic layer etching and chemical vapor deposition, to create pristine MXenes with controlled surface chemistry and large crystalline domains. For efficient materials development, machine learning algorithms integrated with large language models will enable rapid and precise analysis of material structure and properties. These advanced synthesis and characterization capabilities will allow systematic investigation of previously unexplored characteristics of pristine MXenes, including electron transport and light-matter interactions. Through comprehensive study of these well-controlled materials, this research will establish benchmark measurements of MXenes' intrinsic properties and will provide critical insights into how surface chemistry influences their electronic and optical behaviors, advancing the scientific understanding needed for next-generation electronics and robotics. The education and outreach activities will focu on creating a pipeline of talent in advanced materials and manufacturing. The project will implement three integrated programs: a K-12 summer camp module featuring hands-on activities with soft robotics, a research program providing summer research opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate students, and an open-access course featuring an innovative virtual cleanroom experience. These activities will incorporate research findings from the MXene project and will expose students to cutting-edge concepts in materials science and nanofabrication. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.