Non-woven fabrics of columnar-cactus-like MXene@rGO fibers with efficient electromagnetic absorption

In recent years, the explosive growth of electronic devices and wireless communication technologies has intensified electromagnetic pollution, creating an urgent demand for high-performance electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) materials. Such materials must simultaneously achieve lightweight design, broad bandwidth, and strong attenuation capability. While low-dimensional nanomaterials like MXene and graphene are widely employed due to their exceptional dielectric loss properties, limitations at the microscopic scale hinder the formation of effective conductive networks, restricting electromagnetic energy conversion efficiency.

Hierarchical conductive network structures—such as fibrous felts—offer a breakthrough solution by significantly enhancing absorption performance through interfacial coupling, eddy current loss, and optimized porous architectures. However, the high intrinsic conductivity of MXene necessitates low filling contents to achieve impedance matching, paradoxically constraining conductive network development. Thus, the core challenge lies in designing tunable impedance structures while optimizing MXene distribution to overcome current technological bottlenecks.

A team of materials scientists led by He Xiaodong (Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering) and Peng Qingyu at Harbin Institute of Technology, China recently developed a breakthrough MXene@rGO fiber absorber (rGMXn fibrous felt) with "columnar cactus covered with MXene nanosheet clusters" hierarchical structure to advance electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) materials. The absorber, fabricated through integrated wet-spinning, molten salt bath-assisted in-situ synthesis and chemical etching technologies using GO fibers as carbon frameworks, achieves unprecedented performance synergy: ultralow filler content (10 wt.%), strong absorption (>50 dB), broad bandwidth (>5 GHz) and ultra-thin<2 mm) across 2-18 GHz frequencies. This cross-scale bioinspired design enhances EMA performance through hierarchical conductive networks that boost dielectric loss and electromagnetic coupling while optimizing impedance matching. The work establishes an innovative paradigm for next-generation electromagnetic protection in aerospace, wearable electronics and advanced communication systems.

The team published their manuscript in Nano Research on December 31, 2025.

The rapid proliferation of electronic devices and wireless communication technologies has intensified electromagnetic (EM) pollution, driving urgent demand for high-performance EM wave absorption (EMA) materials that combine lightweight design, broad bandwidth, and strong attenuation capabilities. Low-dimensional nanomaterials such as MXene, graphene, reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and carbon nanotubes (CNT) are widely employed in EMA materials due to their excellent dielectric loss properties. However, due to the dimensional constraints, the obtained composite particles struggle to form a conductive network with each other, limiting their EM loss mechanisms.

In contrast, absorbers with hierarchical conductive networks have many advantages:(1) Enhanced dielectric loss. The connected network formed by the overlapping of microscopic components provides a large number of heterogeneous interfaces, which introduces a complex dielectric loss mechanism. (2) Improved magnetic loss. Under external EM field, eddy currents are generated inside the conductive networks, boosting EM energy conversion efficiency through electromagnetic coupling. (3) Optimized impedance matching. The microscopic components overlap each other to form a hierarchical structure, which improves the dispersion of the microscopic components in the matrix and avoids the occurrence of agglomeration. Moreover, the loose and porous structure is conducive to achieving good impedance matching. Therefore, the development of EMA materials with conductive network is the key to further improve the overall EMA performance.

Fibrous felts represent typical conductive network structure, where fibers are combined by bonding, friction and other means to form three-dimensional macroscopic non-woven structures. The overlapped fibers form microscopic hierarchical structures with porous and conductive networks. Therefore, the weaving of fibrous felt is widely used in the fabrication of EMA materials. In recent years, modifications to MXene-based composite fabrics have further enhanced EMA performance through two primary approaches: (1) material composition optimization by incorporating magnetic nanoparticles, CNTs, or other additives and (2) structural design refinement through fiber structure and porosity adjustments.

Nevertheless, the high conductivity of MXene necessitates low filling contents in MXene-based fibrous composites to achieve adequate impedance matching, thereby restricting conductive network development for enhanced EM loss mechanisms. Therefore, breakthroughs in MXene-based absorber performance require constructing hierarchical networks with tunable impedance while designing the MXene content and distribution.

Herein, we propose a pioneering strategy to fabricate MXene@rGO fibrous absorbers (rGMXn fibrous felt) with a hierarchical structure of “columnar cactus covered with MXene nanosheet clusters”. This approach combines wet spinning, molten salt bath-assisted in-situ synthesis, and chemical etching by using GO fibers as carbon resource and frameworks. The obtained MXene@rGO fibers overlap with each other to form rGMXn fibrous felt EMA composite. The obtained rGMXn fibrous felt exhibits excellent EMA performance, in which rGMX10 fibrous felt exhibits a strong EMA performance (>50 dB) and a wide EAB (>5 GHz) with a thin thickness (<2 mm) and a low fiber filling content (10 wt.%) in the frequency band of 2–18 GHz. This cross-scale design paradigm of the bioinspired (columnar cactus-like) hierarchical structure paves new pathways for developing advanced EMA materials in aerospace, wearable electronics, and next-generation communication systems.

Other contributors include Zonglin Liu, Huanxin Lian, Fuhua Xue, Han Li, Xu Zhao, Qian Yan, He Chen, Yunxiang Chen, Teng Fei, Haowen Zheng, and Liangliang Xu from National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments and Center for Composite Materials and Structures at Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China.

This work is granted by the National Key R&D Program of China (NO. 2024YFB3409900).

About the Authors

Prof. He Xiaodong is a professor, doctoral supervisor, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and director of a National Key Laboratory at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He is an expert in composite materials mechanics and engineering mechanics for special environments. His research focuses on composite materials mechanics, lightweight structure design, manufacturing and evaluation, with achievements applied in rockets, aircraft and related equipment. He has been selected for the National High-Level Talent Program, leads an Innovation Team of the Ministry of Education, serves as an expert of the 8th Mechanics Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, chairs the Commercial Aerospace Industry Technology Innovation Alliance, and is a Deputy to the People's Congress of Heilongjiang Province. He has received 3 National Science and Technology Awards, 6 first-class awards at the ministerial and provincial level, the Special Award of the Governor of Heilongjiang Province, and the Highest Science and Technology Award of Heilongjiang Province. He has published 6 monographs, over 350 SCI papers (cited more than 11,000 times), and holds more than 150 invention patents and 9 software copyrights.

Prof. Peng Qingyu is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. His research interests focus on advanced functional materials and flexible electronics. Until now, he has published over 90 SCI papers in journals including Advanced Materials and ACS Nano (with 4 cover features), presided over more than 20 national ministerial projects including a key national project as Chief Technical Expert, owns over 40 invention patents, and has received prestigious awards such as the First Prize of Science and Technology Award from China Composites Society (2024) and China Association for Science and Technology's "Young Talent Lift Project".

About Nano Research

Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 7,000 articles. In 2024 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2024 IF is 9.0 (8.7, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.