Pristine Titanium Carbide MXene Films with Environmentally Stable Conductivity and Superior Mechanical Strength

2D titanium carbide (Ti₃C₂T_x MXene) has potential application in flexible/transparent conductors because of its metallic conductivity and solution processability. However, solution-processed Ti₃C₂T_x films suffer from poor hydration stability and mechanical performance that stem from the presence of intercalants, which are unavoidably introduced during the preparation of Ti₃C₂T_x suspension. A proton acid colloidal processing approach is developed to remove the extrinsic intercalants in Ti₃C₂T_x film materials, producing pristine Ti₃C₂T_x films with significantly enhanced conductivity, mechanical strength, and environmental stability. Typically, pristine Ti₃C₂T_x films show more than twofold higher conductivity (10 400 S cm⁻¹ vs 4620 S cm⁻¹) and up to 11- and 32-times higher strength and strain energy at failure (112 MPa, 1,480 kJ m⁻³, vs 10 MPa, 45 kJ m⁻³) than films prepared without proton acid processing. Simultaneously, the conductivity and mechanical integrity of pristine films are also largely retained during the long-term storage in H₂O/O₂ environment. The improvement in mechanical performance and conductivity is originated from the intrinsic strong interaction between Ti₃C₂T_x layers, and the absence of extrinsic intercalants makes pristine Ti₃C₂T_x films stable in humidity by blocking the intercalation of H₂O/O₂. This method makes the material more competitive for real-world applications such as electromagnetic interference shielding.