Shielding is usually placed around components of electronic devices due to the severe problems caused by electromagnetic interference. Drexel University engineers have discovered that a 2D material called titanium carbonitride is an ultra-efficient shielding material because it can absorb electromagnetic waves, rather than reflecting them.
Electromagnetic signals are everywhere. They come from standard technologies such as televisions, radios, Bluetooth, cellular phone networks, and Wi-Fi. The overwhelming amounts of interference that are exposed to electronic devices slow down data transfer speeds weaken connections, and overall impact the function of devices.
As a solution to this problem, engineers build protective materials into devices, encasing crucial components. The material is typically a thin-film copper foil, which reflects signals back into the atmosphere. The only downfall is that these materials add bulk to a device.
The Drexel team was searching for shielding materials that had a smaller footprint, and they found titanium carbonitride, which belongs to a class of two-dimensional materials known as MXenes. In the study, published in the journal Science, sheets of titanium carbonitride blocked electromagnetic interference between three to five times more efficient than copper foil.
As a bonus, since the titanium carbonitride absorbs the signals rather than reflecting them back out, they end up reducing the noise in the environment.
Kanit Hantanasirisakul, one of the study’s authors, said:
This is a much more sustainable way to handle electromagnetic pollution than simply reflecting waves that can still damage other devices that are not shielded. We found that most of the waves are absorbed by the layered carbonitride MXene films. It’s like the difference between kicking litter out of your way or picking it up. This is ultimately a much better solution.
The titanium carbonitride is so thin, that it could potentially be used to wrap components individually in a device so that they don’t interfere with each other at proximity.
