Invited by Guo-Jun Zhang, deputy director of State Key Lab of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure Prof. Michel W. Barsoum, from Drexel University, visited Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS) on 23rd April, 2014.

During the visit, Prof. Barsoum gave a talk entitled “From MAX to MXene - from 3D to 2D” at the Seminar held byState Key Lab of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, focusing on the 2D materials MXenes, which are fabricated using MAX phases as the starting materials. Unlike the well-known graphene which is hydrophobic, MXenes are hydrophilic, considered as “conductive clays”, a hitherto rare combination. MXenes such as Ti2C, V2C, Nb2C and Ti3C2 can be used as electrode materials in lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors with performances that are quite impressive, given their very young age. So in the future, the potential of using MXenes in energy storage and other applications will be highlighted.

The presentation of Prof. Barsoum attracted extensive interests and discussion at the seminar. Prof. Guo-Jun Zhang, Prof. Hui Gu and Prof. Jian-Jun Liu attended the seminar.

Prof. Michel W. Barsoum is a distinguished professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University. He is an internationally recognized leader in the area of MAX phases with over 250 papers on the these phases alone including ones in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. With an h index over 50, his work has been extensively cited, beingon ISI’s most highly cited authors list. He is the author of the two entries on the MAX phases in the Encyclopedia of Materials Science, and a book, MAX Phases: Properties of Machinable Carbides and Nitrides, published last year. He is the fellow of the American Ceramic Society and the World Academy of Ceramics. In 2000, he was awarded a Humboldt-Max Planck Research Award for Senior US Research Scientists. Since 2013, he has been a visiting professor at Ningbo Institute of Materials & Engineering , Chinese Academy of Sciences.