Ultrastrong MXene composite fibers through static-dynamic densification for wireless electronic textiles
Inherent transverse wrinkles and resulting voids between MXene (Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<sub>x</sub>) nanosheets hinder the preservation of their intrinsic mechanical and electrical properties in macroscopic fibers. Here, we demonstrate a controllable and continuous method for kilometer-scale fabrication of ultrastrong MXene composite fibers by utilizing static filling with short carbon nanotubes combined with dynamic thermal drawing using polylactic acid to bridge MXene nanosheets through hydrogen bonds. The resulting composite fibers achieve a record tensile strength of ~941.5 MPa and an electrical conductivity of ~3899.0 S cm<sup>-1</sup>, with an even higher conductivity of ~12,836.4 S cm<sup>-1</sup> for the inner MXene fiber. This static-dynamic densification strategy significantly reduces voids with a low porosity of ~4.2% and enhances the nanosheet orientation factor to ~0.945. The embroidered smart textiles enable long-range, battery-free wireless health monitoring, body-coupled remote drone operation, and assisted communication with sustained mechanical durability. This versatile strategy offers a general pathway to fabricate high-performance functional fibers.
Authors
- Can Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6125-0837)
- Qunfeng Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7753-4877)
- Denvid Lau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3454-3938)
- Long Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2297-1425)
- Jia Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2139-7942)
- Chao Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8258-3227)
- Lei Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0819-8325)
- Wulong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2824-845X)
- Tianzhu Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0915-8782)
- Yuqi Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8505-6158)
- Qiang He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3555-1852)
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (CN)
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Suzhou University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Ministry of Education (TW)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Beihang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65931-5
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- MXene and MAX Phase Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.55
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Beihang University
- Ministry of Education, India
- University of Science and Technology of China
- National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars