Flexible MXene/Nanocellulose Composite Aerogel Film with Cellular Structure for Electromagnetic Interference Shielding and Photothermal Conversion

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Oct 11;15(40):47425-47433. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c12171. Epub 2023 Sep 29.

Abstract

With the rapid development of wearable devices and integrated systems, protection against electromagnetic waves is an issue. For solving the problems of poor flexibility and a tendency to corrode traditional electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials, two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial MXene was employed to manufacture next-generation EMI shielding materials. Vacuum-assisted filtration combined with the liquid nitrogen prefreezing strategy was adopted to prepare flexible MXene/cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) composite aerogel film with unique cellular structure. Here, CNFs were employed as the reinforcement, and such a cellular structure design can effectively improve the shielding effectiveness (SE). In particular, the composite shows an outstanding EMI SE of 54 dB. Furthermore, the MXene/CNFs composite aerogel film exhibited prominent and steady photothermal conversion ability, which could obtain the maximum equilibrium temperature of 89.4 °C under an 808 nm NIR laser. Thus, our flexible composite aerogel film with appealing cellular construction holds great promise for wearable EMI shielding materials and heating applications in a cold and complex practical environment.

Keywords: EMI shielding; MXene; cellular structure; nanocellulose; photothermal.