Investigation of Interfacial and Interdiffusion Study of Ti2N MXene Phase from TiN/Ti multilayers

Ti2N MXene phase was synthesized by interdiffusion of TiN/Ti multilayers by dc-magnetron sputtering at 698 K. The Atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals the root mean square (RMS) roughness of the TiN/Ti multilayer was -4.78 nm of pristine samples which increased to -5.74 nm after annealing. The total thickness of (TiN10 nm/Ti10 nm), (TiN5 nm/Ti5 nm), and (TiN2.5 nm/Ti2.5 nm) multilayers was 200 nm as estimated by X-ray reflectivity (XRR). The secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) data reveals the diffusivity of N2 in the (TiN/Ti) multilayer is -10-18 m2s- 1 at 698 K. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) planes of (112), (200), (220), (224) are at 36.95 & DEG;, 42.89 & DEG;, 62.25 & DEG;, and 78.53 & DEG; 2 & theta; values respectively confirming the Ti2N MXene phase and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed Ti(2p) and N(1s) core orbitals are at 457.14 eV and 397.17 eV on the surface of TiN/Ti multilayer thin films. The X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) of N and Ti L-edges were found at 404.51 eV, and 462.38 eV respectively which were shifted towards the right and left respectively after annealing indicating an increase and decrease in the oxidation state. Raman bands TA, LA, and TO were shifted towards higher wave numbers to 238, 337, and 634 cm-1 respectively for annealed TiN/Ti multilayer thin films.