ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
Cell phones and other electronic gadgets emit electromagnetic radiation that can cause the annoying buzzing often heard through television, radio, and computer speakers. Device manufacturers try to protect their products from this stray electromagnetic interference, referred to as EMI, and reduce the interference their gadgets cause by using a shielding material such as a layer of copper or aluminum. Electronics makers may soon be able to use less expensive, thinner, and lighter EMI shielding thanks to a newly discovered property of a family of two-dimensional metal carbides and nitrides (Science 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aag2421). Referred to as MXenes (pronounced “max-eens”), these strong, flexible, and electrically conducting materials are being studied for use in batteries and flexible electronics. A team led by Drexel University’s Yury Gogotsi now finds that, on a weight and thickness basis, films of Ti3C2Tx, Mo2TiC2Tx, and Mo2Ti2C3Tx (T represents OH and F surface terminations) provide EMI protection nearly as effectively as or better than pure metals and far better than carbon fibers, nanotubes, and other synthetic materials that have been studied for this application. In addition, MXenes, which can be incorporated into polymer composites, are easily processed in solution and can be sprayed onto irregularly shaped devices.
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on Twitter