Carboxymethyl cellulose-assisted antioxidant MXene coating for cotton fabric with flame retardancy and sensing property

MXene-based coating has been employed in bio-based flexible electronics, smart textile and wearable sensors due to its unique electrical and mechanical properties. Although having broader applications, producing stable and sustainable oxidation-resistant aqueous coating of MXene keeps challenging because of its high sensitivity to oxidation when exposing to oxygen and water. Herein, antioxidant aqueous coating of MXene modified by carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was produced by effective interaction of intercalation-covering on Mxene nanosheets surface. During sonicating MXene in aqueous CMC solution, CMC not only suppresses the oxidation of MXene, but also stabilizes the MXene coating by electrostatic repulsion effect. Furthermore, MXene coating was found to be capable of coating on cotton fabric (CF) tightly after introducing metal ion (i.e., Al 3+ ) with cross-linking effect. When being served as textiles, CF coated with antioxidant MXene not only possesses superior conductivity (0.11 S cm −1 ), photothermal effect and enhanced flame retardancy, but also enables to remain breathability, flexibility and washability, demonstrating favorable potential applications in flexible electronics, flame retardancy and wearable sensors.