A review on technical challenges in synthesis, properties, and energy storage applications of MXene (Ti3C2Tx) and carbon-based hybrid materials

Rising global energy demands, periodic supply disruptions, and intensifying environmental pressures highlight the imperative to develop cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable materials and technologies for energy storage. Among various advanced materials, Ti₃C₂Tₓ (MXene), a two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbide, has emerged as a promising candidate due to its high conductivity, hydrophilicity, and layered structure. In contrast, pure carbon materials demonstrate excellent stability (∼95–98% retention over 1000–15,000 cycles) but relatively moderate capacitance (∼126–250 Fg −1 ). Hybridizing MXenes with carbon-based materials such as CNTs, graphene, and biomass-derived carbon effectively bridges this performance gap, achieving specific capacitances ranging from ∼87 to 1284 Fg −1 with cycle stability up to 100% over 5000 to 25,000 cycles. This review focuses on Ti₃C₂Tₓ‑carbon hybrid materials, their synthesis through top-down and bottom-up approaches, including mechanical processing, in-situ decoration, thermal treatment, and self-assembly. Although past reviews have provided broad overviews of MXene-based composites, this work uniquely applies a method-specific Challenge-Impact-Solution framework to correlate synthesis limitations with electrochemical effect and targeted mitigation strategies. A comparative evaluation of recent review literature further clarifies the distinct contribution of this study. This review outlines future directions to address synthesis limitations, particularly advancing scalable, durable, and high-performance MXene‑carbon hybrid materials for next-generation energy storage systems. • MXene faces limits in structure, synthesis, and long-term stability • Carbon-MXene hybridization boosts performance and stability • Review addresses key challenges of carbon-MXene hybrid composite materials • Review covers synthesis techniques, properties, and energy storage applications • Review explores impacts of thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties on performance