Organic‐Base‐Driven Intercalation and Delamination for the Production of Functionalized Titanium Carbide Nanosheets with Superior Photothermal Therapeutic Performance

Abstract

Abstract The delamination of titanium carbide sheets, an intriguing class of two‐dimensional materials, has been critically dependent on the extraction of interlayer Al in acidic media, such as concentrated hydrofluoric acid (HF) or a mixture of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and a fluoride salt. Herein, we report an organic‐base‐driven intercalation and delamination of titanium carbide that takes advantage of the amphoteric nature of interlayer Al. The resulting aluminum‐oxoanion‐functionalized titanium carbide sheets manifested unusually strong optical absorption in the near‐infrared (NIR) region with a mass extinction coefficient as high as 29.1 L g −1 cm −1 at 808 nm. Thus, the performance of this material is comparable or even superior to that of state‐of‐the‐art photoabsorption materials, including gold‐based nanostructures, carbon‐based materials, and transition‐metal dichalcogenides. Preliminary studies show that the titanium carbide sheets serve as efficient photothermal agents against tumor cells.