Outdoor operations face persistent challenges because of the possible extreme temperature environments, which hinder both safe production and efficient operation. Workers face significant challenges across extreme temperatures, ranging from the freezing -48.9°C in the Antarctica to the scorching 63°C in the Lut Desert, compounded by exposure to electromagnetic wave (EW) radiation and voltage hazards. These harsh conditions endanger worker health, increasing the risk of occupational diseases, and reduce equipment stability and lifespan, thereby severely impacting operational efficiency. Thus, it is urgent to develop a comprehensive and systematic personal-protection textiles (CFs) in extreme temperatures to ensure personnel safety and work execution. This kind of protection heavily relies on multifunctional materials. Intensive studies have focused on the electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, electro-thermal conversion, and infrared thermal shielding. Nevertheless, the exploration of multifunctional personal-protection materials for extreme temperatures still faces numerous challenges. Traditional personal protection relies on workwear made of CFs. In extreme temperatures, this workwear has difficulty resisting temperature fluctuations. Importantly, it lacks the functions of isolating environmental factors such as external EW radiation and extreme temperature, rendering it arduous to uphold the worker comfort. MXenes, 2D transition metal carbonitrides, have advantages like low density, wearability, excellent thermal shielding, and multifunctional surface groups. These unique features have rendered it a hotspot in fields such as flexible sensing, EMI shielding, and infrared thermal reflection. However, pristine MXenes suffer from poor CF adhesion, aggregation, inadequate antioxidant properties, and narrow temperature-regulation ranges, hindering practical applications. Surface engineering, encompassing element doping, metal oxide assembly, and polymer functionalization, serves as a critical strategy to enhance MXene multifunctional capabilities for extreme-temperature personal protection. Concurrently, interfacial work function engineering enables precise modulation of electrical/thermal properties via dipole manipulation and charge redistribution. However, engineering the interfacial work function of MXenes to enhance their multifunctionality in personal protective applications remains significantly underexplored.
A team of material scientists from Hangzhou Dianzi University in Hangzhou, China recently reported a work titled “ Electrothermal Modulation of MXene-PVDF Textiles for Advanced Infrared Thermal Shielding ” . PVDF was used to optimize the electro-thermal-magnetic properties of MXene by tuning its surface work function. MX-PV-CF delivers enhanced 10-40 °C thermoregulation for adaptive personal protection and safe Joule heating (<40 °C), highlighting the potential of MXene-based materials in human thermal management and personal protection.
The team published their article in Nano Research on April 15, 2026.
The highlights of this work are summarized as follows:
(1) PVDF acts as dual dopant and binder, blending with high-concentration MXene to fabricate MX-PV-CF composites, enabling wearable personal protection via writing, screen-printing, and dip coating techniques.
(2) PVDF modulates MXene surface work-function and mitigates its thermal variability via phase-transition and insulating properties, optimizing electro-thermal-magnetic performance.
(3) PVDF-induced low work function endows MX-PV-CF with precise thermoregulation (10-40 °C) for adaptive warmth in cold, coolness in heat and safe Joule heating (<40 °C).
(3) MX-PV-CF exhibits synergistic functionalities: infrared thermal shielding, absorption-dominated ER protection, and PVDF-regulated Joule heating within human comfort zones.
(4) This work enables scalable wearable protection based on MXene under extreme temperatures, advancing intelligent protective material technology.
D OI Link:
https://doi.org/10.26599/NR.2025.94908291
About Nano Research
Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 8,000 articles. In 2025 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2025 IF is 9.4 (8.3, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.
Nano Research
Electrothermal modulation of MXene-PVDF textiles for advanced infrared thermal shielding
15-Apr-2026