Spotlight: Optical Patterning of MXenes and MXene-Based Devices

The patterning of MXenes has proven to be critical for driving advances in the application of solid-state devices such as sensors, wearable electronics, and micro-supercapacitors. However, optical approaches for the patterning of MXenes still face many challenges which must be overcome for the field to move forward. So far, the most common approaches for optical patterning of MXenes rely on laser ablation and photolithography, multistep approaches that, when optimized, are capable of patterning feature sizes down to a few microns. Recently, the use of laser-driven microbubbles for directly patterning MXenes from liquid dispersions has emerged as a unique colloidal approach for the single-step patterning of MXenes and MXene-based composites. Herein, the current status of optical approaches for patterning MXenes is given, and a spotlight is focused on the recent approach of bubble printing. Finally, an overview of the challenges and potential future directions for the optical patterning of MXenes using laser-driven microbubbles is provided.