MXene
aerogels with a porous microstructure are a promising electromagnetic
interference (EMI) shielding material due to its low density and excellent
electrical conductivity, which has attracted widespread attention.
Compared with traditional EMI shielding materials that rely on reflection
as the primary mechanism, MXene aerogels with absorption as the dominant
mechanism have greater potential for development as a novel EMI shielding
material because of its ability to reduce environmental contamination
from reflected electromagnetic (EM) waves from materials. In this
study, a novel Ti3C2T
x
MXene/PEDOT:PSS hybrid aerogel was presented by freeze-drying
and thermal annealing using few-layered Ti3C2T
x
MXene and the conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate)
(PEDOT:PSS). PEDOT:PSS not only improved the gelling ability of Ti3C2T
x
but also successfully
established a conductive bridge between MXene nanosheets. The experimental
results demonstrated that the hybrid aerogel exhibited an obvious
porous microstructure, which was beneficial for the multiple scattering
of EM waves within the materials. The EMI shielding effectiveness
and specific shielding effectiveness reached up to 59 dB and 10,841
dB·cm2·g–1, respectively, while
the SE
R
/SE
T
ratio value was only 0.05, indicating superior wave absorption performance.
Furthermore, the good impedance matching, due to the electrical conductance
loss and polarization loss effect of the composites, plays a critical
role in their excellent wave absorption and EMI shielding performance.
Therefore, this work provides a practical approach for designing and
fabricating lightweight absorption-dominated EMI shielding materials.