Prof. Siyong QIN's work on a two-dimensional layered material Ti₃C₂T_x MXene LC used as a directional medium for residual dipole coupling measurement of organic molecules has been published at ACS Nano. This is a joint work by the team of Professor Aiqing ZHANG of our School and the team of Professor Xinxiang LEI of the School of Pharmaceutical Science. Associate professor Qin is the first corresponding author of this paper, and Professor Lei is the co-corresponding author of this paper.

The paper is titled 'Ti₃C₂T_x MXene Liquid Crystal: Access to Create Background-Free and Easy-Made Alignment Medium' (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c09512). Congratulations!

Below is the Abstract of the paper:

The formation of lyotropic liquid crystals (LCs) in two-dimensional (2D) colloidal dispersions enables the production of mesoscopic/macroscopic ordered materials from nanoscale building blocks. In contrast to graphene oxide (GO) LCs, the practical applications of MXene LCs are less exploited. This study bridges the gap by utilizing a simple and versatile fabrication method to prepare Ti₃C₂T_x MXene LC that can be applied as a background-free alignment medium for the residual dipolar coupling (RDC) measurement of organic molecules. Ti₃C₂T_x LC displays the size- and concentration-dependent alignment degree. Ti₃C₂T_x nanoflakes with an average size of around 600 nm can provide the quadrupolar ²H splitting of 71 Hz at a concentration of 50 mg/mL and show excellent fluidity at such a high concentration. Compared with other alignment media, Ti₃C₂T_x LC exhibits the features of no-background and narrow line broadening, which actualizes the acquirement of clean and high-quality NMR spectra for the accurate RDC extraction. Notably, the alignment of LCs is determined to be maintainable in the redispersed solution after freeze-drying, providing the great convenience for the preparation of alignment Ti₃C₂T_x media, long-term sample preservation, and quantitative evaluation of alignment degree. Meanwhile, the alignment LC media for RDC measurement can be established in other MXenes such as Ti₂CT_x and Ti₃CNT_x. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the potential of creating various alignment media from the fascinating MXene family.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.1c09512

https://www.scuec.edu.cn/hxx/info/1038/3432.htm