Enhancement of microwave absorption bandwidth of MXene nanocomposites through macroscopic design

MXene, the new family of 2D materials having numerous nanoscale layers, is being considered as a novel microwave absorption material.  However, MXene/functionalized MXene loaded polymer nanocomposites exhibit narrow reflection loss (RL) bandwidth (RL ≤ -10 dB).  In order to enhance the microwave absorption bandwidth of MXene hybrid-matrix materials, for the first time, macroscopic design approach is carried out for TiO₂-Ti₃C₂T_x MXene and Fe₃O₄@TiO₂-Ti₃C₂T_x MXene hybrids through simulation.  The simulated results indicate that use of pyramidal meta structure of MXene can significantly tune the RL bandwidth.  For optimized MXene hybrid-matrix materials pyramid pattern, the bandwidth enhances to 3-18 GHz.  Experimental RL value well matched with the simulated RL.  On the other hand, for optimized Fe₃O₄@TiO₂-Ti₃C₂T_x hybrid exhibits two specific absorption bandwidths viz. 3-18 GHz (minimum RL value - 47 dB).  Compared to other 2D nanocomposites such as graphene or Fe₃O₄-graphene, MXene hybrid-matrix materials shows better microwave absorption bandwidth in macroscopic pattern.