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Algae Extracts Controllable Synthesis of Vanadium Carbide Nanosheets with Enhanced Photothermal Performance in the Near Infrared Region

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What is Vanadium Carbide?

Vanadium Carbideis an opaque black crystal that has a density between 5.25 and 5.54g/cm3, a melting point around 2750 (which is slightly harder) than quartz. This substance can be used to make vanadium steel, and it is also used as a carbide cemented carburide additive.

Discovering Two-dimensional Nanosheets of Vanadium Carbide

Vanadium-carbide nanosheets with a two-dimensional structure have great potential to be used as photothermal agents in the treatment of cancer. The application of vanadium in photothermal therapies is limited by harsh synthesis and low photothermal efficiency. The research team recently reported a green intercalation method that uses algae extracts for high-yielding two-dimensional vanadium-carbide nanosheets.

Recent years, two-dimensional transitional metal carbonitride has been used in many areas such as energy storage and biosensors due to its superior metal conductivity, water repellency, various components, and nanostructures. Broad application prospects.

Preparation and Characterization of Two-dimensional Transition Metal compounds

The Mn+1AXn structure is prepared as a precursor. In this ternary, “M” is a transition metal and “A”, mainly, represents the IIIA Group or the IVA Group (13 Or 14,) element. “X”, is C or n (n = 1, 2, or 3). MAX is a layered hexagonal structure composed of metal MX and A bonds. The A element “bonds” between adjacent layers Mn+1Xn. Due to the Mn+1Xn’s weaker M-A bonds, it is possible to selectively remove the A layer with a strong acid or alkali. The harsh conditions of these methods, the low yield and the damage to the structure of Mn+1Xn on a single layer limit their use at large scale. It is therefore urgent to develop a method that is efficient, environmental friendly and yields high to understand such materials better and to broaden their applications.

The Future of Vanadium-Carbide Nanosheets

The team of researchers proposed a method to solve the above problems by using algae extracts in order to produce high-yielding two-dimensional nanosheets vanadium carbide by intercalation. The vanadium carbonitride nanosheets produced by this method are complete and have high absorption near-infrared radiation. The photothermal convertibility at 808nm is up to 48 percent, which is superior to other two-dimensional transitional metal carbonitride materials such as Mo2C (42.9%) and Nb2C(36.4% NIR-I and 45.65% in NIR-2), as well as Ta4C3 (44.7%), and even comparable to photothermal convertibility of gold-based material and carbon-based Nanomaterials. Both in vitro and in vivo tests show that the two-dimensional vanadium-carbide nanosheets could be used for photothermal treatment of cancer guided by magnetic and photoacoustic imaging. This work eliminates the harsh conditions associated with using strong corrosive alkalis or acids, while providing an environmentally friendly and high yield method for the production of two-dimensional carbonitrides.


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