Mixed-dimensional engineering of 3D MXene ultralight hybrid aerogel for anticorrosive and microwave absorption applications

Microwave absorption materials have attracted tremendous attention because of the ubiquitous electromagnetic radiation. Although numerous efforts have been devoted to improving the absorption performance, it is still challenging to design multifunctional microwave absorbers to satisfy versatile applications. Herein, an ultralight three-dimensional aerogel assembled with two-dimensional Ti3C2Tx and one-dimensional Kevlar nanofibers was fabricated via freeze-drying followed by annealing. Owing to the mixed-dimensional engineering strategy, the ultralight aerogel (6.02 mg⋅cm−3) exhibited a broad effective absorption bandwidth of 6.9 GHz at a low loading of 0.79 wt% in the supporting matrix. Moreover, the aerogel had a strong anticorrosive ability. Benefiting from the interconnected porous structure, the aerogel demonstrates excellent comprehensive properties, including temperature-independent anti-compressive performance, strong hydrophobicity, and high absorption capacities for organic liquids. These results suggest that the mixed-dimensional engineering is an effective strategy for designing high-performance multifunctional microwave absorbers.