Evidence of molecular hydrogen trapped in two-dimensional layered titanium carbide-based MXene

Two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides (MXenes) are one of the largest and fastest growing families of materials. The presence of molecular hydrogen at ambient conditions in a MXene ($\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{i}}_{3}{\mathrm{C}}_{2}{T}_{x}$, where ${T}_{x}$ represents a surface terminating species, including O, OH, and F) material is revealed here by inelastic and elastic neutron scatterings. The inelastic neutron-scattering spectrum measured at 5 K shows a peak at 14.6 meV, presenting a clear indication of the presence of parahydrogen in the MXene synthesized using $48%$ hydrofluoric acid and annealed at $110{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}\mathrm{C}$ in vacuum prior to the measurement. An increase in the measurement temperature gradually reduces the peak intensity and increases the peak width due to the mobility of the molecular hydrogen in confinement. The presence of molecular hydrogen is confirmed further from the observed elastic intensity drop in a fixed energy-window scan of elastic intensity measurements in the temperature range of 10--35 K. Using milder etching conditions, ion intercalation, or an increase in the annealing temperature all result in the absence of the trapped hydrogen molecules in MXene. The results of this paper can guide the development of MXene materials with desired properties and improve our understanding of the behavior of MXenes in applications ranging from supercapacitors to hydrogen evolution reaction catalysis and hydrogen storage.