Preparation Strategies and Applications of MXene-Polymer Composites: A Review

As a new member of the 2D material family, MXene integrates high metallic conductivity and hydrophilic property simultaneously. It shows tremendous potential in fields of energy storage, sensing, electromagnetic shielding, and so forth. Due to the abundant surface functional groups, the physical and chemical properties of MXene can be tuned by the formation of MXene-polymer composites. The introduction of polymers can expand the interlayer spacing, reduce the distance of ion/electron transport, improve the surface hydrophilicity, and thus guide the assembly of MXene-polymer structures. Herein, the preparation strategies of MXene-polymer composites including physical mixing, surface modification, such as anchoring through TiN and Ti-O-C bonds, bonding through esterification, grafting functional groups through TiOSi/TiOP bonds, photograft reaction, as well as in situ polymerization are highlighted. In addition, the possible mechanisms for each strategy are explained. Furthermore, the applications of MXene-polymer composites obtained by different preparation strategies are summarized. Finally, perspectives and challenges are presented for the designs of MXene-polymer composites.