Electrically reading a light-driven molecular switch on 2D-Ti3C2Tx MXene via molecular engineering: towards responsive MXetronics

The contemporary digital revolution, which demands for miniaturized electronics, has prompted the search for molecule-based nanomaterials that handle some of the computational logic functions—which relates the concept of zeros (0) and ones (1) in binary code—reached by mainstream silicon-based semiconductor technology. Herein, the feasibility of emerging 2D transition metal carbide (MXene) derivatives to write, erase and readout bistable molecular switches has been elucidated. As a first demonstration of applicability, 2D-Ti3C2Tx MXene has been covalently functionalized with an optically active molecule as azobenzene (AZO), in which the photo-driven inputs of the AZO isomerization (E-AZO@Ti3C2Tx ↔ Z-AZO@Ti3C2Tx) resulted in two distinguished electrical states when it was immobilized in an emerging 3D-printed transducer. Thus, this work provides the basis towards the yet undisclosed concept of “Responsive MXetronics” by molecularly engineering smart MXenes to perform logic (opto)electronic tasks.