Naqvi Shabbir Madad, Hassan Tufail, Iqbal Aamir, Zaman Shakir, Cho Sooyeong, Hussain Noushad, Kong Xiangmeng, Khalid Zubair, Hao Zhiwang, Koo Chong Min
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Seobu-ro 2066, Jangan-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, 16419, Republic of Korea.
School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Seobu-ro 2066, Jangan-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, 16419, Republic of Korea.
Nanoscale. 2025 Apr 3;17(14):8563-8576. doi: 10.1039/d5nr00450k.
The structural design of light-weight MXene-polymer composites has attracted significant interest for enhancing both electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance and mechanical strength, which are critical for practical applications. However, a systematic understanding of how various structural configurations of MXene composites affect EMI shielding is lacking. In this study, light-weight TiCT-PVA composites were fabricated in three structural forms, hydrogel, aerogel, and compact film, while varying the TiCT areal density (14 to 20 mg cm) to elucidate the role of structural design in X-band EMI shielding and mechanical properties. The EMI shielding performance depends on the structural configuration and areal density of the MXene in TiCT-PVA composites. The shielding effectiveness increases with increasing TiCT content in each configuration. At a fixed TiCT areal density of 0.02 g cm, the TiCT-PVA hydrogel demonstrated the highest shielding effectiveness (SE = 70 dB at 10 GHz), attributed to strong dipole polarization and efficient ionic conduction behavior, followed by the compact film (40 dB) and then the aerogel (21 dB). Notably, the aerogel achieved the highest absorption coefficient ( = 0.89) due to the improved impedance matching and pronounced internal reflections, whereas the hydrogel and compact film exhibited reflection-dominated shielding. Furthermore, the incorporation of PVA polymer molecules into TiCT MXenes significantly enhanced their mechanical properties across all configurations: the hydrogel achieved high stretchability (636%), the aerogel displayed superior compressive strength (0.215 MPa), and the compact film reached a tensile strength of 56 MPa, each surpassing the performance of its pristine TiCT MXene counterpart. Overall, tailoring the structural configuration into a hydrogel, aerogel, or compact film offers versatile routes for optimizing both EMI attenuation and mechanical performance of MXene-polymer composites.
轻质MXene-聚合物复合材料的结构设计在增强电磁干扰（EMI）屏蔽性能和机械强度方面引起了极大关注，这对于实际应用至关重要。然而，目前缺乏对MXene复合材料的各种结构构型如何影响EMI屏蔽的系统理解。在本研究中，制备了三种结构形式的轻质TiCT-PVA复合材料，即水凝胶、气凝胶和致密薄膜，同时改变TiCT的面密度（14至20 mg/cm²），以阐明结构设计在X波段EMI屏蔽和机械性能中的作用。TiCT-PVA复合材料的EMI屏蔽性能取决于MXene的结构构型和面密度。在每种构型中，屏蔽效能随TiCT含量的增加而提高。在固定的TiCT面密度为0.02 g/cm²时，TiCT-PVA水凝胶表现出最高的屏蔽效能（在10 GHz时SE = 70 dB），这归因于强偶极极化和高效的离子传导行为，其次是致密薄膜（40 dB），然后是气凝胶（21 dB）。值得注意的是，由于改善了阻抗匹配和明显的内部反射，气凝胶实现了最高的吸收系数（α = 0.89），而水凝胶和致密薄膜表现出以反射为主的屏蔽。此外，将PVA聚合物分子引入TiCT MXene中显著提高了其在所有构型中的机械性能：水凝胶具有高拉伸性（636%），气凝胶表现出优异的抗压强度（0.215 MPa），致密薄膜的拉伸强度达到56 MPa，每种都超过了其原始TiCT MXene对应物的性能。总体而言，将结构构型调整为水凝胶、气凝胶或致密薄膜为优化MXene-聚合物复合材料的EMI衰减和机械性能提供了多种途径。
