Inkjet-Printing Ti₃C₂T_x MXene Nanosheet-Based Metamaterials for Terahertz Absorption

Metamaterials are man-made, subwavelength structures with periodic unit cells that can regulate the propagation of electromagnetic waves via changing the structure of the metamaterial. However, subject to processing technology and device size problems, most of the flexible metamaterials working in the terahertz band stay in the theoretical model. Here, a bendable MXene based metamaterial absorber is prepared through a rapid, low-cost, reproducible, and stable inkjet-printing method. The prepared absorber can achieve selective absorption in a specific frequency band and exhibit 99.4% absorption at 1.07 THz. By changing the structural parameters of the metamaterial absorber, the shift of the absorption peaks and broadening of the absorption bandwidth can be realized. Inkjet-printing technology enables the rapid preparation of this metamaterial absorber with good reproducibility. Furthermore, based on the printed metamaterials, the theoretical model is constructed using CST Studio Suite, with good agreement between the simulation results and the experimental results. Therefore, the flexible MXene nanosheet-based metamaterial absorber prepared by inkjet-printing technology shows its great potential in the selective absorption of the THz wave for next-generation communication devices.