Scalable synthesis of 2D Ti2CTx MXene and molybdenum disulfide composites with excellent microwave absorbing performance

The signal crosstalk and electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems direly need to be resolved in the rapid development of modern microwave communication technology for a better working frequency and transmission power of electronic systems. Where the new absorbing materials such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)/titania (TiO2)/Ti2CTx and MoS2/Ti2CTx composites could meet the requirement of thin, strong, light weight, and wide band for excellent absorbing performance. In this work, a lighter Ti2CTx material was selected as the matrix, and MoS2 was in-situ grown on Ti2CTx matrix by traditional hydrothermal method and microwave solvothermal method. The fabricated composite exhibited synergic effect of two-dimensional heterostructural interface and double dielectric elements, where a small amount of TiO2 and a certain proportion of MoS2 jointly improve the impedance matching of the composite material. In here, the extreme reflection loss (RLmin) can reach - 54.70 dB (with a frequency of 7.59 GHz, 3.39 mm thickness), and the maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EAB(max)) can reach 4 GHz. Polyethylene glycol 200 was used as the solvent instead of water to make Ti2CTx less oxidized during the composite process, where the microwave heating would attain fast speed, short time, high efficiency, and uniform product. Since, the MoS2/Ti2CTx composite without oxidizing possessed a wider effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) at a thinner thickness, thus resulting in the excellent microwave absorption performance and confirming the validity and rationality of new microwave absorption materials.

Automated summary

The development of modern microwave communication technology requires the resolution of signal crosstalk and electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems for better working frequency and transmission power of electronic systems. New absorbing materials such as MoS2/TiO2/Ti2CTx and MoS2/Ti2CTx composites meet the criteria of thin, strong, lightweight, and wideband for excellent absorbing performance. The MoS2/Ti2CTx composite, with an extreme reflection loss (RLmin) of -54.70 dB at a frequency of 7.59 GHz and a thickness of 3.39 mm, achieves a maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EABmax) of 4 GHz.