Biomimetic MXene Textures with Enhanced Light-to-Heat Conversion for Solar Steam Generation and Wearable Thermal Management

2D materials are of particular interest in light-to-heat conversion, yet challenges remain in developing a facile method to suppress their light reflection. Herein, inspired by the black scales of Bitis rhinoceros, a generalized approach via sequential thermal actuations to construct biomimetic 2D-material nanocoatings, including Ti3C2Tx MXene, reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is designed. The hierarchical MXene nanocoatings result in broadband light absorption (up to 93.2%), theoretically validated by optical modeling and simulations, and realize improved light-to-heat performance (equilibrium temperature of 65.4 degrees C under one-sun illumination). With efficient light-to-heat conversion, the bioinspired MXene nanocoatings are next incorporated into solar steam-generation devices and stretchable solar/electric dual-heaters. The MXene steam-generation devices require much lower solar-thermal material loading (0.32 mg cm(-2)) and still guarantee high steam-generation performance (1.33 kg m(-2) h(-1)) compared with other state-of-the-art devices. Additionally, the mechanically deformed MXene structures enable the fabrication of stretchable and wearable heaters dual-powered by sunlight and electricity, which are reversibly stretched and heated above 100 degrees C. This simple fabrication process with effective utilization of active materials promises its practical application value for multiple solar-thermal technologies.