MXenes-based nanojunction with defective MoSe₂ nanocatalyst towards reducing the thermal runaway hazard of polymer

The shining star of transition metal carbides (MXenes, denoted as MX) has motivated the great interest in flame retardation. Meanwhile, its usage suffers from the issues of poor flame-retardant effectiveness, serious aggregation, etc. Here, the interfacial assembly method is employed to deploy the MX based nanojunction with defective MoSe₂ nanocatalyst (MX-Mo-A). Under its extremely-low dosage (∼1.0 wt%), the decreases of 41.0 %, 57.0 %, 29.2 % on peak heat release rate, peak smoke production rate, total smoke production of thermoplastic polyurethane are achieved, confirming the greatly hindered emissions of heat and smoke. Besides, the peak CO yield is impaired by 81.2 %, demonstrating the obviously impeded fire toxicity. Such flame retardance superiorities are vividly elucidated via contrast with published works. More encouragingly, the markedly suppressed releases of toxic aromatic compounds, NO and HCN are detected. This work may enable the new paradigm for designing interfacial assembly induced nanojunctions and fabricating fire-proof polymer-matrix composites (PMCs).