Sacrificial-assisted long-range lamellar MXene/rGO aerogel for electromagnetic interference shielding and thermal insulation

Electromagnetic protection and thermal protection are of great importance to delicate instruments. Aerogels with ordered structural orientation offer a huge potential in dissipating electromagnetic wave energy and isolating heat. However, achieving precise control over the long-range order in aerogels remains significant challenges, impeding their further development and multifunctional applications. Hence, the MXene/rGO aerogels (LMG) with long-range lamellar structure are constructed by sacrificial-assisted bidirectional freeze-casting. The LMG demonstrates superior electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance with an absolute shielding effectiveness (SSE/t) of 14933.3 dB cm² g⁻¹. The highly ordered layers effectively hinder the thermal conduction between adjacent layers, achieving a thermal conductivity of only 30.8 mW m⁻¹ K⁻¹. Moreover, the LMG demonstrates excellent elasticity and structural stability, maintaining its structural integrity even under significant geometric deformations during fatigue tests (only 4.7 % residual strain and 5.5 % stress reduction). The long-range lamellar structure endows LMG with superior EMI shielding, thermal insulation and mechanical properties, providing a reliable design strategy for achieving structural orderliness and multifunctional applications in aerogels.