Synergistic effects of size-confined mxene nanosheets in self-powered sustainable smart textiles for environmental remediation

Green renewable technologies have become a focus of energy research due to the adverse impacts of fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, climate change, global warming, and battery short life. A new generation of biomaterials with spontaneous piezoelectric properties is highly emerging for generating electricity from ubiquitous mechanical energy. Recent years, there has been a concerted effort to engineer robust 1D functional materials for nanogenerators, leveraging cellulose as the foundational material. This research work produced nanofiber composite of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and MXene (Ti₃C₂) nanosheets incorporated into cellulose acetate (CA) polymer through electrospinning process forms the basis for ecofriendly highly durable smart textile fabrication. Formation of MXene nanosheets heterostructures significantly promoted the low conversion efficiency of conventional ZnO to highest output voltage of ⁓35 V, and a short circuit current of ⁓3.34 µA. Synergistic contribution of the piezo-enhanced photocatalytic activity of MXene/ZnO hetero-structured smart nanofibers offers greater environmental remediation of water resources from the contamination of methyl orange (MO) dye with a rate constant (k) of 66.14×10⁻³ min⁻¹. In addition, intelligent dual mechanistic membranes support sustainable operations (20000 cycles) with strong morphological and performance retention (⁓92 %), showing good chemical and mechanical stability even under harsh operating conditions.