Scalable Production of Tailor-Designed MXene–Hydrogel Core–Shell Fibers via Dual Stress-Guided Alignment during Thermal Drawing

Large-scale production of two-dimensional MXene-based functional fibers, while preserving their outstanding material properties, remains challenging. Here, we present highly aligned Ti₃C₂T_<i>x</i> MXene fibers integrated into tens of meters-long fibers via in situ stress-induced alignments during thermal drawing. In the proposed liquid injection-assisted thermal drawing, MXene flakes in aqueous dispersion are continuously injected into hollow channels of fibers and subsequently aligned by interfacial shear stress at the MXene-polymer interface. Osmotic pressure resulting from water absorption into the hydrogel cladding further enhances layered MXene alignment via self-planarization, yielding highly aligned MXene-hydrogel core-shell fibers. Beyond general applications for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, our tailor-designed MXene fiber are utilized in multifunctional fiber-based devices, including EMI self-protective electronics and neural probe, leveraging EMI shielding effectiveness and electrical conductivity of the highly aligned MXene structure. This scalable approach to embedding the versatile MXene fiber-based system expands the application scope of MXenes in precise electronics, smart textiles, and biomedical engineering.