3D porous Ti₃C₂T_x prepared on carbon cloth by electrophoretic co-deposition for enhanced supercapacitor performance

MXenes are promising two-dimensional materials for energy storage applications, but the stacking and aggregation of MXene nanosheets degrade their electrochemical performance. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) porous Ti₃C₂T_x was successfully prepared on carbon cloth with controllable mass loading, porosity, and pore size with an electrophoretic co-deposition (EPCD) strategy by introducing polystyrene (PS) microspheres as soft sacrificial templates. The resulting 3D porous structure exhibits a significant enhancement in electrochemical performance due to effectively suppressing the stacking and aggregation of Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets, which provides additional electron transport channels and electrochemically active sites. The modified 3D porous Ti₃C₂T_x@CC shows a specific capacitance as high as 299 F g⁻¹ (about 1.6 times that of pristine Ti₃C₂T_x) at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹, a satisfactory capacitance of 234 F g⁻¹ (approximately 78.3% of the initial capacitance) under a high current density of 10 A g⁻¹, and excellent cycling stability. Furthermore, a porous Ti₃C₂T_x@CC-based symmetric supercapacitor displays an energy density of 6.6 µWh cm⁻² (3.9 Wh kg⁻¹) at a power density of 0.2 mW cm⁻² (125 W kg⁻¹). This work facilitates an effective EPCD strategy for producing 3D porous Ti₃C₂T_x for energy storage, electrocatalysis, and environmental applications.