Facile Design of Flexible, Strong, and Highly Conductive MXene-Based Composite Films for Multifunctional Applications

Beibei Wang; Weiye Zhang; Chenhuan Lai; Yi Liu; Hongwu Guo; Daihui Zhang; Zhanhu Guo

doi:10.1002/smll.202302335

Facile Design of Flexible, Strong, and Highly Conductive MXene-Based Composite Films for Multifunctional Applications

Small. 2023 Dec;19(52):e2302335. doi: 10.1002/smll.202302335. Epub 2023 Sep 3.

Authors

Beibei Wang^{1

2}, Weiye Zhang^{1

2}, Chenhuan Lai³, Yi Liu^{1

2}, Hongwu Guo^{1

2}, Daihui Zhang^{1

3

4}, Zhanhu Guo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Wood Material Science and Application (Beijing Forestry University), Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100083, China.
² Engineering Research Center of Forestry Biomass Materials and Energy, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
³ Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210037, China.
⁴ Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210042, China.
⁵ Integrated Composites Lab, Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK.

PMID: 37661587
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202302335

Abstract

Strong, conductive, and flexible materials with improving ion accessibility have attracted significant attention in electromagnetic interference (EMI) and foldable wearable electronics. However, it still remains a great challenge to realize high performance at the same time for both properties. Herein, a microscale structural design combined with nanostructures strategy to fabricate TOCNF(F)/Ti₃ C₂ T_x (M)@AgNW(A) composite films via a facile vacuum filtration process followed by hot pressing (TOCNF = TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils, NW = nanowires) is described. The comparison reveals that different microscale structures can significantly influence the properties of thin films, especially their electrochemical properties. Impressively, the ultrathin MA/F/MA film with enhanced layer in the middle exhibits an excellent tensile strength of 107.9 MPa, an outstanding electrical conductivity of 8.4 × 10⁶ S m^-1 , and a high SSE/t of 26 014.52 dB cm² g^-1 . The assembled asymmetric MA/F/MA//TOCNF@CNT (carbon nanotubes) supercapacitor leads to a significantly high areal energy density of 49.08 µWh cm^-2 at a power density of 777.26 µW cm^-2 . This study proposes an effective strategy to circumvent the trade-off between EMI performance and electrochemical properties, providing an inspiration for the fabrication of multifunctional films for a wide variety of applications in aerospace, national defense, precision instruments, and next-generation electronics.

Keywords: MXene; cellulose nanofibers; electromagnetic interference shielding; energy storage; silver-nanowires; structural design.

Abstract

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