3D porous Ti3C2Tx prepared on carbon cloth by electrophoretic co-deposition for enhanced supercapacitor performance

MXenes are promising two-dimensional materials for energy storage applications, but the stacking and aggregation of MXene nanosheets degrade their electrochemical performance. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) porous Ti 3 C 2 T x was successfully prepared on carbon cloth with controllable mass loading, porosity, and pore size with an electrophoretic co-deposition (EPCD) strategy by introducing polystyrene (PS) microspheres as soft sacrificial templates. The resulting 3D porous structure exhibits a significant enhancement in electrochemical performance due to effectively suppressing the stacking and aggregation of Ti 3 C 2 T x nanosheets, which provides additional electron transport channels and electrochemically active sites. The modified 3D porous Ti 3 C 2 T x @CC shows a specific capacitance as high as 299 F g −1 (about 1.6 times that of pristine Ti 3 C 2 T x ) at a current density of 1 A g −1 , a satisfactory capacitance of 234 F g −1 (approximately 78.3% of the initial capacitance) under a high current density of 10 A g −1 , and excellent cycling stability. Furthermore, a porous Ti 3 C 2 T x @CC-based symmetric supercapacitor displays an energy density of 6.6 µWh cm −2 (3.9 Wh kg −1 ) at a power density of 0.2 mW cm −2 (125 W kg −1 ). This work facilitates an effective EPCD strategy for producing 3D porous Ti 3 C 2 T x for energy storage, electrocatalysis, and environmental applications.