The university said about three years ago, professors in its College of Engineering, Michel Barsoum and Yury Gogotsi discovered atomically thin, two-dimensional materials -similar to graphene- that have good electrical conductivity and a surface that is hydrophilic, or can hold liquids.

The new materials were named by researchers as Mxenes, which hearkens to their genesis through the process of etching and exfoliating atomically thin layers of aluminum from layered carbide MAX phases.

Drexel University noted that aince then, the pair, and their team of materials scientists, have forged ahead in exploring the potential uses of Mxenes.

Gogotsi, who is also director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, said currently, nine MXenes have been reported by the team, but there are likely many more that will be discovered – the MXene-and-ion combinations that have been tested to date are by no means an exhaustive demonstration of the material’s energy storage capabilities.

"So even the impressive capacitances that we are seeing here are probably not the highest possible values to be achieved using MXenes. Intercalation of magnesium and aluminum ions that we observed may also pave the way to development of new kinds of metal ion batteries," Gogotsi said.