James Wait, a Physics Ph.D. candidate at Clarkson University won a travel support provided by the NSF to attend and present his work at the 2nd international MXene Conference at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 1-3.
The conference, titled “MXenes: Addressing Global Challenges with Innovation”, is expected to convene about 200 in-person researchers, students, investors, and policymakers, along with hundreds more virtual attendees across the world, to discuss basic research problems and future applications for the novel two-dimensional materials. Since their discovery at Drexel in 2011, MXene materials have demonstrated unrivalled properties capable of improving everyday electronics and addressing global technological challenges in fields such as energy storage, water purification, electromagnetic shielding, communication, smart textiles and even medicine.
Wait’s presentation describes the fundamental tribological understanding of Ti3C2Tx, the first synthesized MXene, and its potential as a solid lubricant in space applications. MXenes are the newest classifications of 2D materials, and the fundamental understanding of their frictional properties is still yet to be fully understood, which is the focus of Wait’s research. Wait is a Ph.D. candidate in the Physics of Surfaces and Interfaces Group under the supervision of Dr. Arzu Çolak, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics.
