We are pleased to share the official announcement by Drexel University regarding the launch of the "MX-Innovation" project. Our partners from Ukrainian company Carbon-Ukraineare very exited to particpate in the new "MX-Innovation" three-year multinational collaboration project led by Prof. Yury Gogotsi, Drexel University (USA) to produce MXene nanomaterials. The project, which is a collaboration with Drexel University USA, Kalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, the University of Padua in Italy and the Kyiv, Ukraine-based MXene manufacturing company Carbon-Ukraine, seeks to use the promising nanomaterial, first discovered at Drexel, to provide clean drinking water for arid areas of the world threatened by climate change and improve cell labeling and tracking technology for biomedical analysis.

“We are thrilled to begin work on this exciting project,” said Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Charles T. and Ruth M. Bach professor of Materials Science and Engineering in Drexel’s College of Engineering, and director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, who is heading the project. “Exploring MXene applications at a greater scale will certainly expand the capabilities of this family of materials and offer vital opportunities to people in need of more drinking water and address crucial clinical research and medical diagnostics needs. This effort is timely and further emphasizes the importance of the work we are doing with MXenes.”

Prof. Yury gogotsi Gogotsi and his collaborators in Drexel’s College of Engineering have been studying MXenes, a family of two-dimensional nanomaterials they discovered in 2011, and testing them in a variety of applications, from telecommunications to energy storage to electromagnetic shielding. This two-dimensional nanomaterial has proven to be exceptionally versatile and easy to integrate into existing technologies because it can be produced in dozens of different chemical configurations, which allows researchers to optimize for each application. “Despite the increasing demand for large quantities of MXenes, there are no companies selling inexpensive, high-quality MXenes designed to meet the demands of the emerging water and healthcare markets,” Y. Gogotsi said.

“Ultimately, RIC2D in the UAE will serve as the hub for deploying these innovative MXene-based technologies, advancing potable water production and cell tracking capabilities. These solutions are critically important for the UAE and the broader region, and the project promises to deliver meaningful global impact.”- said Professor Hassan Arafat, senior director, RIC2D.
MXenes have already demonstrated an exceptional acuity for liquid filtration and ion separation. The nanomaterials’ layered structure and adjustable chemical composition allow them to be customized for straining a wide variety of ions or chemicals out of a solution. MX-Innovation will harness this capability as it designs a pilot-level device that can turn salt water into drinking water using a physical and electrochemical filtration process. Drexel researchers have conducted preliminary research in using MXenes for desalination, which has already shown promising results. Focusing on this goal as part of the initiative could speed progress toward the development of a hybrid capacitive deionization (HCDI) technology. It could also reveal other desalination methods that may benefit from the use of MXenes.

The second goal of the MX-Innovation team is to develop MXenes as a cell labeling technology that could improve early detection of cancers, outcomes for transplant patients and possibilities for tissue regeneration. MXenes will be developed and tested for use in a cell analysis technique, called Cytometry by Time of Flight (CyTOF), that uses metal materials as tags or labels on the surface and interior of cells to observe and quantify their behaviors and study the interactions of proteins, carbohydrates or lipids within a cell. As part of this project, we will implement our existing tags to label cell components, in particular extracellular vesicles, which can act as a cell membrane model, as well as standalone therapeutic moieties.” - Dr. L. Delogu said.

An effort like this to boost the availability of MXenes could enable their widespread use for industrial applications, as well as academic research, according to Gogotsi.
“By utilizing novel, efficient and economical processing and synthesis approaches, which will then make this material available to a broader scientific community and for commercial use, this effort will result in the manufacturing of MXenes and MXene-based products specifically designed for the targeted environmental and health care applications,” said Oleksiy Gogotsi, PhD, CEO and director of Carbon-Ukraine, who will be collaborating with his brother, Drexel’s Yury Gogotsi, as part of this project.
MX-Innovation project is part of a broad initiative, funded by Kalifa’s Research & Innovation Center for Graphene and 2D Materials (RIC2D), to translate two-dimensional materials into commercial innovations in areas that include water treatment, energy, health care, and technology infrastructure, among others.

Read more about the MX-Innovation project: https://drexel.edu/news/archive/2025/July/MXene-desalination-medical-diagnostics-Kalifa-Padua-Carbon-Ukraine