The family of MAX phases and their derivative MXenes are continuously growing in terms of both crystalline and composition varieties. In the last couple of years, several breakthroughs have been achieved that boosted the synthesis of novel MAX phases with ordered double transition metals and, consequently, the synthesis of novel MXenes with a higher chemical diversity and structural complexity, rarely seen in other families of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Considering the various elemental composition possibilities, surface functional tunability, various magnetic orders, and large spin–orbit coupling, MXenes can truly be considered as multifunctional materials that can be used to realize highly correlated phenomena. In addition, owing to their large surface area, hydrophilicity, adsorption ability, and high surface reactivity, MXenes have attracted attention for many applications, e.g., catalysts, ion batteries, gas storage media, and sensors. Given the fast progress of MXene-based science and technology, it is timely to update our current knowledge on various properties and possible applications. Since many theoretical predictions remain to be experimentally proven, here we mainly emphasize the physics and chemistry that can be observed in MXenes and discuss how these properties can be tuned or used for different applications.

MAX相及其衍生的MXene系列在晶体和组成方面都在不断增长。在过去的几年中，已经取得了一些突破，从而促进了有序双过渡金属的新颖MAX相的合成，因此，具有更高化学多样性和结构复杂性的新颖MXene的合成在其他两个家族中很少见维（2D）材料。考虑到各种元素组成的可能性，表面功能的可调谐性，各种磁阶和较大的自旋轨道耦合，MXenes可以真正视为可用于实现高度相关现象的多功能材料。另外，由于它们的大表面积，亲水性，吸附能力和高表面反应性，MXenes已在许多应用中引起了关注，例如催化剂，离子电池，气体存储介质和传感器。鉴于基于MXene的科学技术日新月异，现在应该及时更新我们在各种特性和可能应用方面的知识。由于许多理论预测仍有待实验证明，因此在这里我们主要强调在MXenes中可以观察到的物理和化学，并讨论如何调整这些特性或将其用于不同的应用。