Calorimetric Study of Alkali Metal Ion (K⁺, Na⁺, Li⁺) Exchange in a Clay-Like MXene

Intercalation of ions in layered materials has been explored to improve the rate capability in Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors. This work investigates the energetics of alkali ion exchange in a clay-like MXene, Ti3C2Tx, where Tx stands for anionic surface moieties, by immersion calorimetry in aqueous solutions. The measured immersion enthalpies of clay-like Ti3C2Tx, ΔHimm, at 25 °C in 1 M KCl, 1 M NaCl, 1 M LiCl, and nanopure water are −9.19 (±0.56), −5.90 (±0.31), −1.31 (±0.20), and −1.29 (±0.13) kJ/mol of MXene, respectively. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is used to obtain the concentrations of alkali ions in the solid and aqueous phases. Using these concentrations, the enthalpies of exchange of alkali metal ions (Li+, Na+, and K+) are calculated; ΔHex in 1 M KCl, 1 M NaCl, 1 M LiCl, and nanopure water are −9.3 (±2.2), 21.0 (±0.9), −1.3 (±0.2), and 302.4 (±0.6) kJ/mol of MXene, respectively. Both immersion and exchange enthalpies are most exothermic for potassium. This suggests that K+ ions interact more strongly with anions present in the interlayers of this MXene than Na+ and Li+ ions. Water vapor adsorption calorimetry indicates very weak interaction of water with the MXene, while immersion calorimetry suggests a weakly hydrophilic nature of the MXene surface.