Porous two-dimensional materials (MXenes) for gas separations

The PhD project will synthesise porous MXenes and test them for gas separations relevant for carbon capture and hydrogen purification. MXenes are a new class of two-dimensional materials that have been recently discovered and have already shown great promise for applications in electrochemical energy storage and electromagnetic shielding. In our research group, we have been looking at methods for increasing the porosity and surface area in MXenes, as these can prove extremely beneficial for applications that include electrochemical energy storage, catalysis and gas adsorption. We have successfully synthesised porous MXenes with high surface areas and tailored pore sizes, properties that are extremely important for gas separations, but so far these materials have been untested in these applications.

Industrial separations are responsible for 15% of the world's primary energy demand, and they are critical for future industries, such as hydrogen fuel cells, which require purification of hydrogen gas, or waste-to-energy processes such as gasification, which need careful separation of the resulting gaseous streams. Adsorption-based separations have long been used in industry, but there is an urgent need for development of new materials that can provide for more energy-efficient separations.

The project will look at synthesis and characterisation of new porous MXenes, tuning their pore sizes and surface chemistry. It will then test these for gas adsorption of CO2, N2, O2 and H2, with the view of identifying the most promising combinations for gas separations. The final stage of the project involves testing the materials for binary and multicomponent gas separations.