Facile fabrication of novel fire-safe MXene@IL-based epoxy nanocomposite coatings with enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties

In recent years, developing high-performance epoxy nanocomposite coatings with excellent fire safety, thermal conductivity, and mechanical performance has become a thorny challenge. Here, the multifunctional nanohybrid (MXene@IL) was facilely fabricated by an electrostatic self-assembly strategy, and epoxy nanocomposite coatings based on MXene@IL (EP/MXene@IL) were prepared. It has been found that MXene@IL nanohybrids exhibit excellent dispersion and interfacial compatibility in the epoxy matrix. Notably, the 2.0 wt% MXene@IL endows the epoxy nanocomposite coating with high fire safety, with a 43.76 % reduction in peak heat release rate and a 65.99 % reduction in smoke factor compared to virgin epoxy resin (EP), respectively. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivity (increased by 21.56 %) of EP/MXene@IL-2.0 is enhanced. Furthermore, the flexural and impact strengths of EP/MXene@IL-1.0 are improved by 10.24 % and 44.73 %, respectively. Interestingly, MXene@IL acts as a co-curing agent to facilitate the curing reaction of epoxy nanocoatings. This work provides a feasible strategy for designing multifunctional MXene@IL-based epoxy nanocomposite coatings.