MXenes are of great practical interest. While the physical properties of such a well-known MAX phase as Ti₃AlC₂ and the Ti₃C₂ MXene that is based on it have been widely studied, it is extremely important to study the properties of new four-component MAX-phases and the MXenes based on them. To do this, first, it is necessary to characterize the obtained materials. In this work, the Ti_3−xNb_xC₂ MXene was characterized. Since the material is fairly new, there are no crystallographic data for such systems in the international databases. We proposed a method for the determination of the main unit cell parameters of the new Ti_3−xNb_xC₂ MXene, which was based on a combination of the DFT method, TEM studies, and an X-ray diffraction analysis.

Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction and the production of hydrogen are urgent tasks of green energy. One of the most studied semiconductor photocatalysts for this purpose is titanium dioxide. However, it has a number of fundamental limitations that do not allow its application for such tasks on an industrial scale. Another class of promising materials, which is being investigated very actively, are two-dimensional materials based on MXenes. In this work, we present the first results on photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and CO₂ reduction using TiNbC/TiO₂ heterostructures with TiNbC contents of 1, 5, and 10%. The approach to the creation of heterostructures proposed in this work may become a significant breakthrough in the search for new highly efficient systems for carbon dioxide reduction and hydrogen production.

We study the synthesis of Ti₂AlC MAX-phase ceramics via spark plasma sintering (SPS), focusing on the effects of temperature, precursor composition, and transition metal doping (Mo, Ta, Hf, W, Y, and Mn). Optimized sintering parameters were established, defining the precursor ratios necessary for the formation of Ti₂AlC with >90% yield. Structural and compositional analyses revealed that select transition metals—Ta, Hf, W, and Y—could be incorporated into the Ti₂AlC lattice, which resulted in >90% yield for each transition metal-doped MAX phase. In contrast, Mo and Mn predominantly formed separate phases. These findings provide insights into the controlled synthesis of MAX-phase materials with tunable properties for high-performance applications.

We study the synthesis of Ti₂AlC MAX-phase ceramics via spark plasma sintering (SPS), focusing on the effects of temperature, precursor composition, and transition metal doping (Mo, Ta, Hf, W, Y, Mn). Optimized sintering parameters were established, defining the precursor ratios necessary for Ti₂AlC formation. Structural and compositional analyses revealed that select transition metals—Ta, Hf, W, and Y—can be incorporated into the Ti₂AlC lattice, whereas Mo and Mn predominantly form separate phases. These findings provide insights into the controlled synthesis of MAX-phase materials with tunable properties for high-performance applications.