Ultra-compact MXene fibers by continuous and controllable synergy of interfacial interactions and thermal drawing-induced stresses

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 4564 - 13
• Main Authors: Zhou, Tianzhu, Yu, Yangzhe, He, Bing, Wang, Zhe, Xiong, Ting, Wang, Zhixun, Liu, Yanting, Xin, Jiwu, Qi, Miao, Zhang, Haozhe, Zhou, Xuhui, Gao, Liheng, Cheng, Qunfeng, Wei, Lei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05.08.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/988; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/301/1023/303; 639/301/357/1018; 639/301/930/1032; Continuous fibers; Electrical conductivity; Electrical conductivity meters; Electrical resistivity; Electrode materials; Electromagnetic interference; Electromagnetic shielding; Fibers; Humanities and Social Sciences; Mechanical properties; multidisciplinary; MXenes; Nanostructure; Nanostructured materials; Porosity; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Stresses; Tensile strength; Textiles; Thermal management
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32361-6
• ISSN: 2041-1723

Recent advances in MXene (Ti 3 C 2 T x ) fibers, prepared from electrically conductive and mechanically strong MXene nanosheets, address the increasing demand of emerging yet promising electrode materials for the development of textile-based devices and beyond. However, to reveal the full potential of MXene fibers, reaching a balance between electrical conductivity and mechanical property is still the fundamental challenge, mainly due to the difficulties to further compact the loose MXene nanosheets. In this work, we demonstrate a continuous and controllable route to fabricate ultra-compact MXene fibers with an in-situ generated protective layer via the synergy of interfacial interactions and thermal drawing-induced stresses. The resulting ultra-compact MXene fibers with high orientation and low porosity exhibit not only excellent tensile strength and ultra-high toughness, but also high electrical conductivity. Then, we construct meter-scale MXene textiles using these ultra-compact fibers to achieve high-performance electromagnetic interference shielding and personal thermal management, accompanied by the high mechanical durability and stability even after multiple washing cycles. The demonstrated generic strategy can be applied to a broad range of nanostructured materials to construct functional fibers for large-scale applications in both space and daily lives. Forming compact layered nanostructures is key to achieving continuous MXene fibers with electrical and mechanical properties. Here, authors demonstrate ultra-compact high-performance MXene fibers via a controllable synergy of interfacial interactions and thermal drawing-induced stresses.