Co-existence of Novel Ferromagnetic/Anti-ferromagnetic Phases in Two-dimensional Ti3C2 MXene

TL;DR

This paper reports the first synthesis and characterization of co-existing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases in La-doped Ti3C2 MXene, highlighting its potential for magnetic data storage applications.

Contribution

It introduces the first observation of co-existing magnetic phases in 2D Ti3C2 MXene and explores how La doping affects its structural, optical, and magnetic properties.

Findings

La doping shrinks interlayer spacing and increases band gap.

Magnetic measurements show co-existence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases.

First report on magnetic properties of 2D carbides for data storage.

Abstract

This study reports first synthesis of MXene-derived co-existing phases. New family of two-dimensional materials such as Ti3C2 namely MXene, having transition metal forming hexagonal structure with carbon atoms have attracted tremendous interest now a days. We have reported structural, optical and magnetic properties of undoped and La-doped Ti3C2Tx MXene synthesized using co-precipitation method. The c-lattice parameters (c-LP) calculated for La-MXene is c=18.3{\AA} which is slightly different from the parent un-doped MXene (c=19.2{\AA}), calculated from X-ray diffraction data. The doping of La+3 ions shrinks Ti3C2Tx layers perpendicular to the planes but expands slightly the in-plane lattice parameters. The band gap for MXene is calculated to be 1.06 eV which is increased to 1.44 eV after the doping of La+3 ion that shows its good semiconducting nature. The experimental results for magnetic properties of both the samples have been presented and discussed, indicating the presence of ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic phases co-existing. The results presented here are unique and first report on magnetic properties of two-dimensional carbides for magnetic data storage applications.