Vulcanization of Ti3C2T x MXene/natural rubber composite films for enhanced electromagnetic interference shielding

Highlights: • Rubber-based composite films with different heterogeneous architectures were achieved. • Honeycomb structure Ti₃C₂T_x/NR composite films were obtained after DCP curing. • Vulcanization treatment is more conducive to the enhancement of EMI shielding. • Mechanical properties of the crosslinked composite films were accordingly increased. The high performance Ti₃C₂T_x MXene/natural rubber (NR) composite films with brick–mortar and honeycomb structure are successfully fabricated by a facile pressured-extrusion filtration process and the subsequent curing treatment. The microstructure of the Ti₃C₂T_x MXene/NR composite films with heterogeneous architectures changed from brick-mortar to honeycomb structures after vulcanization reaction. The brick–mortar structure Ti₃C₂T_x/NR composite film possesses superior EMI shielding performance with the shielding effectiveness (SE) of 57.1 dB and excellent mechanical properties of a tensile strength of 28.5 MPa. It's interesting to note that both EMI shielding and mechanical properties of the composite films with honeycomb structure showed significant improvement after curing process compared with those of brick–mortar counterparts, which exhibit the ultrahigh EMI SE of 63.5 dB and optimal mechanical tensile strength of 39.5 MPa. We believe that this work will provides a new idea for the production of high-performance rubber-based EMI shielding materials.