Strong sequentially bridged MXene sheets

Titanium carbide (Ti₃C₂T_x) MXene has great potential for use in aerospace and flexible electronics due to its excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. However, the assembly of MXene nanosheets into macroscopic high-performance nanocomposites is challenging, limiting MXene’s practical applications. Here we describe our work fabricating strong and highly conductive MXene sheets through sequential bridging of hydrogen and ionic bonding. The ionic bonding agent decreases interplanar spacing and increases MXene nanosheet alignment, while the hydrogen bonding agent increases interplanar spacing and decreases MXene nanosheet alignment. Successive application of hydrogen and ionic bonding agents optimizes toughness, tensile strength, oxidation resistance in a humid environment, and resistance to sonication disintegration and mechanical abuse. The tensile strength of these MXene sheets reaches up to 436 MPa. The electrical conductivity and weight-normalized shielding efficiency are also as high as 2,988 S/cm and 58,929 dB·cm²/g, respectively. The toughening and strengthening mechanisms are revealed by molecular-dynamics simulations. Our sequential bridging strategy opens an avenue for the assembly of other high-performance MXene nanocomposites.