Supertough MXene/Sodium Alginate Composite Fiber Felts Integrated with Outstanding Electromagnetic Interference Shielding and Heating Properties

Abstract

The development of multifunctional MXene-based fabrics for smart textiles and portable devices has garnered significant attention. However, very limited studies have focused on their structure design and associated mechanical properties. Here, the supertough MXene fiber felts composed of MXene/sodium alginate (SA) fibers were fabricated. The fracture strength and bending stiffness of felts can be up to 97.8 MPa and 1.04 N mm², respectively. Besides, the fracture toughness of felts was evaluated using the classic Griffith theory, yielding to a critical stress intensity factor of 1.79 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>M</mml:mi><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:mi>a</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mspace></mml:mspace><mml:msqrt><mml:mi>m</mml:mi></mml:msqrt></mml:math>. In addition, this kind of felt presents outstanding electrothermal conversion performance (up to 119 °C at a voltage of 2.5 V), high cryogenic and high-temperature tolerance of photothermal conversion performance (-196 to 160 °C), and excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (54.4 dB in the X-band). This work provides new structural design concepts for high-performance MXene-based textiles, broadening their future applications.