High-performance electromagnetic wave absorption by two-dimensional mesoporous monolayer Ti3C2Tx MXene

Transition metal carbide MXene, with its unique chemical composition, structure and sizeable particular surface area, is widely applied in wave absorption. However, the high conductivity of MXene resulted in an impedance mismatch that prevented electromagnetic waves from entering the material to achieve dissipation, and thus, tuning the intrinsic properties of pure MXene to obtain excellent electromagnetic wave absorption is still a challenge. Here, we strengthen the absorption of electromagnetic waves by generating titanium vacancies through hydrogen peroxide etching and thus forming micro-sized wrinkles with porous MXene. Porous MXene possesses an excellent microstructure and surface state, abundant porous defects, and moderate electrical conductivity, allowing it to achieve well-matched impedance, dipole polarization, and conduction loss, thus inheriting excellent electromagnetic wave absorption (EWA) properties. Therefore, the porous MXene achieves a strong absorption of − 63.31 dB and an adequate absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 6.88 GHz at a matched thickness of 2.39 mm with a fill ratio of 6 wt%.