Tough and electrically conductive Ti3C2T MXene–based core–shell fibers for high–performance electromagnetic interference shielding and heating application

Although transition metal carbide (MXene) fibers are highly electrically conductive, the poor spinnability of neat MXene dispersion and the brittleness of the conductive fibers limit their applications. Herein, a coaxial wet spinning assembly strategy is adopted to fabricate mechanically strong and electrically conductive Ti3C2Tx MXene-based core–shell fibers with regenerated cellulose (RC) as the tough component and graphene oxide/MXene (GM) as the conductive components. By an optimal structure design, the hollow RC@GM90 fiber with the RC shell exhibits an increased strength of 134.7 MPa, a high toughness of 14.1 MJ m−3, a large elongation at break of 13%, and a high conductivity of 2.37×103 S m−1. By sewing on a textile substrate, the hollow RC@MXene fibers with a high conductivity of 3.68×104 S m−1 provide an extraordinary electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency of over 90 dB and outstanding solar-thermal energy conversion performances. Similarly, by improving spinnability of the MXene spinning dope with an aqueous dispersion of GO, solid core–shell GM@RC fibers with conductive GM shells are fabricated by the coaxial spinning, and the chemically reduced GM@RC fibers exhibit a high conductivity of 9.90×104 S m−1 and excellent electro-thermal energy conversion performances.