Stimuli-responsive Ti3C2Tx MXene-based hydrogels: preparation and applications

As a new type of two-dimensional (2D) material, Ti₃C₂T_x MXenes have attracted tremendous attention due to their unique properties, such as hydrophilicity, excellent conductivity, efficient photothermal conversion, excellent biocompatibility, and so on. Recently, MXene-based stimuli-responsive hydrogels have emerged as a novel class of smart soft materials by combining MXenes with three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel networks with excellent biocompatibility, tissue-like mechanical features and stimuli-responsiveness. MXene-based hydrogels that can respond to stimuli such as strain/pressure, light, and other physicochemical stimuli have been successfully developed and have shown great promise in various applications, such as sensing, actuation, solar steam generation and biomedical applications. This review summarizes the preparation of MXene-based hydrogels and different types of stimuli-responsive MXene-based hydrogels developed so far, as well as their applications in sensors, biomedicine, actuators, solar steam generation, and so on. Finally, the main challenges and future prospects of these novel smart soft materials are discussed.