Thank you to our collaborators for the amazing joint work recently published in Graphene and 2D Nanomaterials about MXene–silk fibroin composite films aiming to develop materials with tunable electronic and thermal properties!
Ti₃C₂Tₓ MXene–silk fibroin composite films: engineering DC conductivity and properties in the THz range
Andrew Fitzgerald1, Laura Londoño Fandiño1, Kateryna Kushnir Friedman1, Tom Kohen1, Nikoloz Gegechkori1, John Obayemi2, Sepideh Khanmohammadi1, Alireza Nikbakht2, Michael Zajac1, Vladimir Gayduchkov1, Yehia Khalifa3, Joshua Uzarski4, Ivan Baginskiy5, Veronika Zahorodna5,Oleksiy Gogotsi5,6, Ronald L. Grimm3, Jeannine M. Coburn2 & Lyubov V. Titova1
1 Department of Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 50 Prescott Street, Worcester, MA, 01605, USA
2 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 60 Prescott Street, Rm 4012, Worcester, MA, 01605, USA
3 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
4 US Army DEVCOM Soldier Center, Natick, MA, USA
5 Y-Carbon LLC (Carbon-Ukraine), Kiev, Ukraine
6 MXene Nano Tech LLC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Abstract
MXenes, a family of two-dimensional transition metal carbides and nitrides with high conductivity and stability, are promising materials for applications such as flexible and wearable electronics or electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. In this study, we explore MXene-silk composites using THz time-domain spectroscopy and time-resolved spectroscopy. We focus on Ti3C2Tx MXenes—silk fibroin films, aiming to develop materials with tunable electronic and thermal properties. While the composite films remain electrically conductive for films prepared from aqueous solutions with as much as 2 mg silk per mg of MXene, DC conductivity in such films decreases by over four orders of magnitude as compared to MXene-only films. At the same time, high THz range AC conductivity and EMI shielding efficiency in the THz range are largely preserved, as they are determined predominantly by the intra-flake electron transport and are less impacted by the increased inter-flake distances. Using time-resolved THz spectroscopy, we also find that while optical excitation of both pure MXene films and MXene-silk composite films results in transiently enhanced THz transmission due to thermal suppression of conductivity, silk encapsulation accelerates thermal relaxation. Thus, the DC conductivity and thermal properties of MXene-silk composites can be effectively tuned by adjusting the silk fibroin content, largely without impacting their EMI shielding performance in the THz range. This tunability opens a pathway to designing biocompatible electronic materials with customizable properties tailored to specific applications.
Keywords: Silk fibroin (silk), Ti3C2Tx MXenes, Conductive, EMI shielding, Photothermal
Reference: Fitzgerald, A., Londoño Fandiño, L., Kushnir Friedman, K. et al. Ti3C2Tx MXene: silk fibroin composite films—engineering DC conductivity and properties in the THz range. Graphene and 2D mater (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41127-025-00088-y
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