Ultralight, compressible, and anisotropic MXene@Wood nanocomposite aerogel with excellent electromagnetic wave shielding and absorbing properties at different directions

The advanced electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing materials are greatly desired for the elimination of increasingly serious electromagnetic radiation pollution. Herein, the natural wood was delignified to fabricate the wood aerogel as a porous framework, then f-Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets were assembled into the wood aerogel to give a novel ultralight, highly compressible and anisotropic MXene@Wood (M@W) nanocomposite aerogel (0.108 g/cm³), which possesses both EMI shielding and EM absorbing properties at the different directions. Because of the anisotropic wood aerogel skeleton, the M@W aerogels present channel-like microstructure and ideal structural load carrying capacity at the parallel growth direction, and the layered microstructure and highly compressibility at the vertical growth direction are obtained at the same time. By regulating the f-Ti₃C₂T_x MXene loading, the as-prepared M@W aerogel can achieve a striking high EMI shielding effectiveness of 72 dB at the parallel growth direction and a broadened effective absorption bandwidth covering 8.2–12.4 GHz at the vertical growth direction simultaneously. This work provides a facile alternative strategy for developing wood-derived anisotropic MXene@Wood nanocomposite aerogel, which possesses both EMI shielding and EM absorbing properties at different directions.