Ti3C2Tx intercalation, modification and application in enzymatic CO2 conversion

Ti 3 C 2 T x as a typical MXene material has a multilayer structure similar to accordion, whose interlayer spacing and specific surface area can be regulated by intercalation and modification. In this work, the effects of several kinds of cation-containing intercalators including NH 4 OH, KOH and NH 4 OH/KCl on the structure of Ti 3 C 2 T x and its application performance in enzymatic CO 2 conversion were investigated for the first time. The results show that Ti 3 C 2 T x intercalated with NH 4 OH/KCl had larger layer spacing (25.25 Å) and specific surface area (20.85 m 2 /g), and better enhancing effect. The initial reaction rate was 0.379 mM/h, which was separately 1.04, 1.42, 1.76 and 5.29 times that of Ti 3 C 2 T x /KOH, Ti 3 C 2 T x /NH 4 OH, Ti 3 C 2 T x and the blank system. Following that, Ti 3 C 2 T x /NH 4 OH/KCl was modified by polyethyleneimine (PEI) and dopamine (DA) and the concentration of modifier was optimized. PEI modified Ti 3 C 2 T x /NH 4 OH/KCl (PEI-Ti 3 C 2 T x ) was superior to PEI/DA modified that in the N content, CO 2 adsorption capacity and application performance. With the addition of 20 mg PEI-Ti 3 C 2 T x , the initial reaction rate was 0.658 mM/h, which was 1.74 and 9.2 times that of before modification and the blank system, respectively. PEI-Ti 3 C 2 T x also exhibited a good reusability and the initial reaction rate was 89.4% of the initial value after 10 cycles.