Enhancing the electromagnetic interference shielding of epoxy resin composites with hierarchically structured MXene/graphene aerogel

Graphene aerogels (GAs) exhibits immense potential in the field of electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding due to their ultralow density, inherent conductive network, and porous structure. However, the optimization of structure and conductivity of GAs remains a significant challenge. To address this issue, a double template method was utilized to regulate the structure of graphene aerogel, resulting in a well-ordered hierarchical architecture. Subsequently, MXene was deposited on the surface of GA-1 through an immersion method to enhance the conductivity. The as-prepared MXene/graphene composite aerogel (MGA-10) showed excellent compression properties with ultra-high specific stress of 9.6 kPa cm3 mg−1 at 80% strain. Besides, due to the unique structure, the GA-x/epoxy composite (GA-x/EP) demonstrated excellent EMI shielding performances of more than 45 dB in both the C-band and X-band. The increase in conductivity and the introduction of new interfaces caused by MXene deposition further improved the EMI properties of MGAs/EP. After 10 times of deposition, MGA-10/EP displayed an impressive EMI performance above 68 dB in both the C-band and X-band. Moreover, MGA-10/EP exhibited excellent photothermal conversion performance, making it highly suitable for applications such as anti-icing and deicing. This work provides a valuable idea for designing efficient EMI materials.