High-Density Anisotropy Magnetism Enhanced Microwave Absorption Performance in Ti3C2Tx MXene@Ni Microspheres

Two-dimensional materials, especially the newly emerging MXene, have attracted numerous interests in the fields of energy conversion/storage and electromagnetic shielding/absorption. However, the inherently inevitable aggregation and absence of magnetic loss of MXene considerably limit its electromagnetic absorption application. The introduction of magnetic component and favorable structural engineering are the alternatives to improve the microwave absorption (MA) performance. Herein, we report a spheroidization strategy to assemble double-shell MXene@Ni microspheres, where the commonly lamellar MXene are reshaped into three-dimensional microspheres that provide the substrate for oriented growth of Ni nanospikes. Whereas this structural feature offers massive accessible active surfaces that effectively promote the dielectric loss ability, the introduction of magnetic Ni nanospikes enables the additional magnetic loss capacity. Benefiting from these merits, the synthesized 3D MXene@ Ni microspheres exhibit superior MA performance with the minimum reflection loss value of -59.6 dB at an ultrathin thickness (similar to 1.5 mm) and effective absorption bandwidth of 4.48 GHz. Moreover, the electron holography results reveal that the high-density anisotropy magnetism plays an important role in the improvement of MA performance, which provides an insight for the design of MXene-based materials as high-efficient microwave absorbers.

Automated summary

This study successfully assembled double-shell MXene@Ni microspheres using a spheroidization strategy to improve microwave absorption performance. The structure offers massive accessible active surfaces and the introduction of Ni nanospikes provides additional magnetic loss capacity.