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Recent Advances in the MXenes for Photocatalytic and Hydrogen Production Applications

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Handbook of Smart Materials, Technologies, and Devices

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Abstract

Currently, the thorny issues of environmental pollution, energy crisis, and abnormal climatic changes have turned researchers’ attention toward sustainable solar energy. Therefore, in the last couple of years, MXenes as a novel fascinating class of two-dimensional transition metal carbides, nitrides, and/or carbonitrides have been widely used to address these evils, as MXenes display numerous outstanding properties like remarkable electrical conductivity, high chemical stability, large specific surface area, good hydrophilicity, and high-reactive adsorption sites. In particular, hybrids of MXenes with semiconductors are effective photocatalysts due to their specific interface and Schottky heterojunction characteristics, which are proficient for enabling faster charge separation and a lower Schottky barrier for photocatalytic applications. Thus, MXenes have widely stirred up interdisciplinary attention and research interest in various fields especially in photocatalytic, hydrogen production, pollutants degradation, nitrogen fixation, and carbon dioxide reduction. In this chapter, the modernistic synthesis methods, structure, properties, and intricate applications of MXenes are presented in detail. Moreover, the mechanism of photocatalysis and its related characteristics are also explored. Thus, the recent advancements in MXene-based photocatalysis have been critically reviewed in this chapter. It is strongly believed that this chapter would offer productive reference for researchers in the field of MXene-based photocatalysis. Finally, challenges and revitalizing outlooks for the photocatalytic applications of MXenes are also considered and summarized.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiation and Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, National Centre of Excellence in Physical Chemistry, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

    Ikhtiar Gul, Murtaza Sayed, Maleeha Bushra, Faryal Gohar & Qaiser Khan

Authors
  1. Ikhtiar Gul
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  2. Murtaza Sayed
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  3. Maleeha Bushra
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  4. Faryal Gohar
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  5. Qaiser Khan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Murtaza Sayed .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA

    Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain

  2. School of Science, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Paolo Di Sia

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Gul, I., Sayed, M., Bushra, M., Gohar, F., Khan, Q. (2022). Recent Advances in the MXenes for Photocatalytic and Hydrogen Production Applications. In: Hussain, C.M., Di Sia, P. (eds) Handbook of Smart Materials, Technologies, and Devices. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84205-5_81

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