Assembling 3D porous Ti3C2 MXene heterostructure with SnO nanoparticles for effective microwave absorption and lithium storage

Tin monoxide (SnO) has recently emerged as a prominent choice for lithium-ion storage due to its exceptional specific capacity. However, challenges such as inevitable structural degradation and poor electronic conductivity limited practical application. We aim to address the interfacial delamination problem by encapsulating SnO nanoparticles within 3D porous N-doped Ti3C2 MXene. In the constructed architecture, the porous MXene served the dual purpose of preventing direct exposure of SnO to the electrolyte and mitigating nanoparticle aggregation, as well as alleviating volume expansion. Consequently, the Ti3C2/SnO composite demonstrated a reliable capacity of 386 mA h g–1 at 500 mA g–1 over 100 cycles. Furthermore, a remarkable effective bandwidth of 4.4 GHz, accompanied by a reflection loss of –40.47 dB could be achieved at merely 1.0 mm. Our study contributes important insights into the construction of MXene-based nanocomposites, enabling their application in diverse fields such as lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and microwave absorbers.