Issue

Vol. 18 (2026)

Tellurium-Terminated MXene Synthesis via One-Step Tellurium Etching

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01875-1
Guoliang Ma
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China
Zongbin Luo
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China
Hui Shao
Lab, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, People’s Republic of China
Yanbin Shen
Lab, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Suzhou 215123, People’s Republic of China
Zifeng Lin
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China
Patrice Simon
CIRIMAT, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France

Corresponding Author: Patrice Simon

simon@chimie.ups-tlse.fr

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 18 (2026), Article Number: 28

Abstract

With the rapid development of two-dimensional MXene materials, numerous preparation strategies have been proposed to enhance synthesis efficiency, mitigate environmental impact, and enable scalability for large-scale production. The compound etching approach, which relies on cationic oxidation of the A element of MAX phase precursors while anions typically adsorb onto MXene surfaces as functional groups, remains the main prevalent strategy. By contrast, synthesis methodologies utilizing elemental etching agents have been rarely reported. Here, we report a new elemental tellurium (Te)-based etching strategy for the preparation of MXene materials with tunable surface chemistry. By selectively removing the A-site element in MAX phases using Te, our approach avoids the use of toxic fluoride reagents and achieves tellurium-terminated surface groups that significantly enhance sodium storage performance. Experimental results show that Te-etched MXene delivers substantially higher capacities (exceeding 50% improvement over conventionally etched MXene) with superior rate capability, retaining high capacity at large current densities and demonstrating over 90% capacity retention after 1000 cycles. This innovative synthetic strategy provides new insight into controllable MXene preparation and performance optimization, while the as-obtained materials hold promises for high-performance sodium-ion batteries and other energy storage systems.


Highlights:
1 A novel and efficient Te etching method for the preparation of Te-functionalized MXene materials is presented
2 This simple etching method enables the processing of V- and Nb-based MAX phases and demonstrates potential for large-scale production.
3 V2CTex MXene has a sodium storage capacity of up to 247 mAh g−1 and maintains 216 mAh g−1 at 23 C.

Keywords

Te-terminated MXene Elemental tellurium etching Sodium-ion storage High-rate performance
Ma, Guoliang, Zongbin Luo, Hui Shao, Yanbin Shen, Zifeng Lin, and Patrice Simon. 2025. “Tellurium-Terminated MXene Synthesis via One-Step Tellurium Etching”. Nano-Micro Letters 18 (August):28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01875-1.
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