Discovered in 2011, the MXene family is comprised of 2D transition metal carbides, carbonitrides, and nitrides with a general formula of M_n+1X_n, where M represents transition metals (e.g., Sc, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo) and X is carbon and/or nitrogen. MXenes are receiving significant attention as the next-generation electromagnetic (EM) shielding materials, which can mitigate malfunction and leakage of confidential information from electronic devices.  Using MXenes can address some of the drawbacks of conventional EM shielding materials, which are made of metal such as aluminum, copper, and nickel. However, these metal shrouds are heavy, bulky, easily corrodible, and not mechanically flexible - all of which limits the use for modern microelectronic devices.

Currently, MXenes are synthesized by wet-chemical etching in highly concentrated hydrofluoric acid (HF) or HF-containing or HF-forming etchants. The process adds surface functionalities such as -O, -F, or -OH, represented by Tx in this formula as M_n+1X_nT_x. Etching is required because of strong chemical bonding between the T and M atoms, which make mechanical exfoliation challenging and hardly possible. To date, more than 20 members of the MXene family have been synthesized, and dozens more are predicted, making it one of the fastest growing 2D material families. Reported efforts of scaling up the synthesis of MXenes, however, are few. Still in the early stage of research, current processes suffer from both low yield (e.g. 10-20%) and quantities as well as inhomogeneity in size and morphology that leads to variability in EM shielding performance and prevents their practical utilization.