MXene-based compound to enable 3D-printed antennas

Researchers from UBC Okanagan and Drexel University have collaborated on a new compound that can be used to 3D print telecommunication antennas and other connectivity devices. These 3D-printed products, created by combining a two-dimensional compound called MXene with a polymer, could make a vast improvement in communication technology including elements such as antennas, waveguides and filters. The work has been described in the journal Materials Today.

Waveguides are structures or pipes that help direct sound and optical waves in communication devices and consumer appliances like microwave ovens. They vary in size, but historically they are made of metal due to its conductive attributes. Dr Mohammad Zarifi and his team in UBC Okanagan’s Microelectronics and Gigahertz Applications (OMEGA) Lab have been developing state-of-the-art communication components that have a compatible performance to metal, but are 10 to 20 times lighter, less expensive and easy to build.

MXenes, meanwhile, are an emerging family of two-dimensional materials — with the titanium carbide MXene being a leader in terms of electrical conductivity. As stated by Dr Yury Gogotsi, Director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute at Drexel University, “Think of MXenes as nanometre-thin conductive flakes that can be dispersed in water-like clay. This is a material that can be applied from dispersion in pure water with no additives to almost any surface. After drying in air, it can make polymer surfaces conductive. It’s like metallisation at room temperature, without melting or evaporating a metal, without vacuum or temperature.”

The integration of MXene onto 3D-printed nylon-based parts allows a channel-like structure to become more efficient in guiding microwaves to frequency bands. According to Omid Niksan, a UBCO School of Engineering doctoral student, this capability in a lightweight, additively manufactured component can impact the design and manufacturing of electronic communication devices in the aerospace and satellite industry.

“Whether in space-based communication devices or medical imaging equipment like MRI machines, these lightweight MXene-coated polymeric structures have the potential to replace traditional manufacturing methods such as metal machining for creating channel structures,” Niksan said.

The researchers have a provisional patent on the polymer-based MXene-coated communication components. And while there is still additional research to be done, Zarifi said the potential of the equipment is quite literally sky-high.

“We aim to explore and develop the possibilities of 3D-printed antennas and communication devices in space,” he said. “By reducing payloads of shuttle transporters, it gives engineers more options.”

Image caption: Omid Niksan holds a prototype of a 3D-printed MXene-coated component.