Compressible, durable and conductive polydimethylsiloxane-coated MXene foams for high-performance electromagnetic interference shielding

Lightweight and compressible electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding polymer nanocomposites are urgently required to solve increasingly serious electromagnetic pollutions. Two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides (MXenes), especially Ti 3 C 2 T x , are ideal candidates for constructing highly efficient conduction networks in polymer matrices due to their intriguing layered structure and high electrical conductivity. Herein, compressible and electrically conductive polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-coated MXene foams are fabricated by preforming three-dimensional (3D) MXene aerogel architectures assisted with sodium alginate (SA) followed by coating a thin layer of PDMS to enhance structural stability and durability of the porous architectures. Consequently, the lightweight MXene/SA hybrid aerogel achieves an outstanding conductivity of 2211 S m −1 and a high average EMI shielding efficiency of 70.5 dB. Furthermore, the PDMS coating effectively endows the 3D conductance network with excellent compressibility and durability. The PDMS-coated MXene foam with 6.1 wt% of MXene reserves its high EMI shielding efficiency of 48.2 dB after 500 compression-release cycles. The lightweight, compressible and conductive PDMS-coated MXene foam is thus promising for applications in EMI shielding gaskets, wearable electronics, sensors and other specific areas.