Structural reconfiguration of chitosan@MXene/graphene oxide fibers for high-performance electromagnetic shielding

Conductive MXene-based fibers hold great promise in the field of flexible wearable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, but their poor spinnability, disordered layer stacking, and weak interfacial interactions severely limit their performance. To overcome these challenges, we develop a synergistic material-structure strategy to fabricate coaxial chitosan@MXene/graphene oxide (GO) composite fibers with chitosan (CS) as the outer shell. The introduction of GO significantly improves the dispersibility and interfacial compatibility of MXene, thereby resolving its inherent poor spinnability. The outer CS layer not only serves as a mechanical support layer but also forms an antioxidant protective shell, effectively inhibiting the degradation of MXene in aqueous and oxygenated environments. Furthermore, we propose a facile post-processing immersion-drying strategy, the immersion process induces slip and rearrangement of MXene and GO layers. Subsequent drying and shrinkage processes further compact the layers, thereby “locking” a tightly ordered conductive structure to yield CS@Mx-G-1 fibers. In this strategy, the fiber conductivity increases from 6.56 × 10 3 S/m to 1.55 × 10 4 S/m, while the electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness enhances from 30 dB to 45 dB. The fibers maintain stable conductivity and flexibility after two immersion cycles. This approach provides a novel strategy for constructing high-performance flexible EMI shielding fibers.