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In this work, TiC‐SiC‐Ti3SiC2 composites were synthesized by in situ reactive hot pressing using β‐SiC, graphite, and TiH2 powders as initial materials. Microstructure and mechanical properties of as‐prepared dense composites were systematically investigated. It was found that by increasing the initial SiC content the final SiC content in the composites increased in contrast to the decrease in TiC and Ti3SiC2 contents. In the dense composites, TiC and Ti3SiC2 grains exhibited transgranular fracture, whereas SiC particles showed intergranular fracture. The composite containing 77 vol.% TiC, 4 vol.% SiC, and 19 vol.% Ti3SiC2 had the highest flexural strength of 706.6 MPa. The composite consisting of 44 vol.% TiC, 49 vol.% SiC, and 7 vol.% Ti3SiC2 exhibited the highest Vickers hardness of 22.3 GPa and the highest fracture toughness of 6.0 MPa·m1/2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Approaching state‐of‐the‐art areal and volumetric capacitances while maintaining high‐power characteristic is a big challenge that promotes practical application of flexible solid‐state micro‐supercapacitors (MSCs), which have recently attracted great attention with the rapid development of flexible microelectronics. Herein, it is reported that freestanding extrahigh conductive Ti3C2Tx (MXene) films with excellent flexibility and effectively controlled thickness ranging from 1–21 µm performed as excellently scalable and flexible solid‐state MSCs owing to their ultrahigh underlying electrical conductivity (up to 1.25 × 105 S m−1) and self‐functionalized surfaces (O, OH, and F terminations). Amazingly, freestanding conductive Ti3C2Tx based flexible solid‐state MSCs with interdigital electrodes and polyvinyl alcohol/sulfuric acid (PVA/H2SO4) gel electrolyte display outstanding areal capacitances of 340 mF cm−2 at 0.25 mA cm−2 based on the two working electrodes. Moreover, the maximum corresponding volumetric capacitance and energy density of flexible solid‐state MSCs reach up to 183 F cm−3 and 12.4 mWh cm−3, which is on the topmost level among all the unconventional supercapacitors to date. Compared with materials currently used in MSCs, this freestanding conductive Ti3C2Tx shows potential and scalability in increasing overall micro‐supercapacitor performance, which evidently sheds light on promising application of freestanding conductive MXenes for next‐generation flexible, portable, and integrated MSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]