Superspreading Shear-Flow-Induced Layered MXene Films with Enhanced Conductivity, Strength, and EMI Shielding Performance

Two-dimensional titanium carbide (Ti₃C₂T_x) MXene nanosheets have a variety of potential applications due to their high electrical conductivity and mechanical strength. However, assembling these nanosheets into multilayer films often results in weak interfacial interactions and low orientation, which severely compromises their electrical and mechanical performance. Here, we achieved highly oriented MXene nanosheets by utilizing shear flow generated during the superspreading process of MXene dispersions. Simultaneously, metal ion-induced gelation is introduced to enhance interlayer interactions and permanently fix the oriented structure. The resulting MXene multilayer films demonstrate excellent electrical conductivity of 17840 ± 905 S·cm^–1, which compares favorably with the best values reported for Ti₃C₂T_x films. These films also exhibit outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding capacity (51.1 dB for a 1.3 μm thick film). Moreover, the tensile strength and Young’s modulus are increased to 2.8 and 2.7 times that of MXene films prepared by conventional solution-casting, reaching 143.0 ± 10.0 MPa and 10.1 ± 0.8 GPa, respectively. This work presents a robust strategy for fabricating high-performance MXene films by synergistically controlling nanosheet orientation and interlayer interaction.