Ultraflexible, highly efficient electromagnetic interference shielding, and self-healable triboelectric nanogenerator based on Ti3C2T MXene for self-powered wearable electronics

Integrating smart functions into one flexible electronic is vastly valuable in improving their working performances and broadening applications. Here, this work reports a ultraflexible, highly efficient electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, and self-healable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that is assembled by modified Ti3C2Tx MXene (m-MXene)-based nanocomposite elastomers. Benefitting from the excellent electronegativity of m-MXene, the single-electrode mode-based TENG can generate high open-circuit voltage (Voc) oscillating between − 65 and 245 V, high short-circuit current (Isc) of 29 µA, and an instantaneously maximum peak power density of 1150 mW m−2 that can power twenty light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Moreover, the resultant TENG possesses outstanding EMI shielding performance with the maximum shielding effectiveness of 48.1 dB in the X-band. The enhanced shielding capability is dominated by the electromagnetic absorption owning to high conduction loss in m-MXene network, multiple reflections between m-MXene sheets, and polarization effect on the surface of m-MXene sheets. Additionally, a self-powered wearable sensor is fabricated based on the as-prepared TENG. The sensor shows an intrinsic healing ability with healing efficiency of 98.2% and can accurately detect the human large-scale motions and delicate physical signal. This work provides an enhanced way to fabricate the wearable electronics integrated with smart functions, and the reported MXene-based TENG may have a broad prospect in the fields of aerospace, artificial intelligence, and healthcare systems.