NSF CAREER Award for Prof. Christina Birkel

With this NSF CAREER award (opens in new tab), Professor Christina Birkel at Arizona State University will synthesize new members as well as new shapes and microstructures of the three- and two-dimensional layered compounds that belong to the families of MAX phases and MXenes. Her team’s work has a strong and distinguishing focus on wet chemical-assisted techniques which (i) benefit from intimate mixing of the precursors on the atomic/molecular scale and with that typically reduced reaction times and temperatures (this leads to MAX phase particles instead of the typical bulky structures and can also stabilize metastable phases), and (ii) allow for advanced processing of the liquid/gel precursor mixture into additional shapes, e.g. wires and hollow microspheres, that would not be possible with powders used in solid-state reactions. The outcome of this proposal will be the synthesis of entirely new types of structural and functional materials and will lay the groundwork for various application-based areas, such as construction (self-healing materials, refractory materials), energy technologies (magnetocalorics, catalysts, sensors), consumer electronics (coatings) and electronic textiles (“smart”/functional fabrics).