Green
and scalable production of some fibrous materials with higher
fracture energy has long been the goal of researchers. Although some
progress has been made in recent years in the research of materials
with high fracture energy, inspired by the fiber structure of spider
silk, it is still a great challenge to produce artificial fibers with
extremely high toughness using a simple and green process. Here, we
use the molecular and nanoscale engineering of calcium phosphate oligomers
(CaP, < 1 nm) and waterborne polyurethanes (WPU) macromolecules
that have strong interactions to form organic–inorganic networks
just like β-sheet crystalline and flexible amorphous regions
in spider silk. Through a simple and green route based on widespread
paper string processing techniques, we fabricate a strong and supertough
bioinspired fiber with a high strength (442 MPa), which is 7–15
times higher than the strength of counterpart PU (20–30 MPa),
and a super toughness (640 MJ m–3), which is 2–3.5
times higher than the toughness of spider dragline silk. This technique
provides a strategy for industrially manufacturing spider fiber-like
artificial fibers with a super toughness.
Nature has given us significant inspiration to reproduce bioinspired materials with high strength and toughness. The fabrication of well-defined three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically structured nanocomposite materials from nano-to the macroscale using simple, green, and scalable methods is still a big challenge. Here, we report a successful attempt at the fabrication of multidimensional bioinspired nanocomposites (fiber, films, plates, hollow tubes, chair models, etc.) with high strength and toughness through self-healing and shape-retaining methods using waterborne polyurethane (WPU) and nanocellulose. In our method, the prepared TEMPO oxide cellulose nanofiber (TOCNF)-WPU hybrid films show excellent moistureinduced self-healing and shape-retaining abilities, which can be used to fabricate all sorts of 3D bioinspired nanocomposites with internal aligned and hierarchical architectures just using water as media. The tensile and flexural strength of the self-assembled plate can reach 186.8 and 193.2 MPa, respectively, and it also has a high toughness of 11.6 MJ m −3 . Because of this bottom-up selfassembly strategy, every multidimensional structure we processed has high strength and toughness. This achievement would provide a promising future to realize a large-scale and reliable production of various sorts of bioinspired multidimensional materials with high strength and toughness in a sustainable manner.
The optimal design of high wear‐resistance and durability of coatings using organic–inorganic interpenetrating networks has been a long‐term goal of researchers. Although some progress has been made in the modification of waterborne polyurethanes (WPU), there are still significant challenges in fabricating more durable polyurethane‐based protective coatings from the perspective of structural design at a molecular level. Here, a sub‐nanoscaled (<1 nm) inorganic calcium phosphate oligomer (CPO) is used to carry out organic–inorganic hybrid cross‐linking in a WPU network and precisely regulate the structure of the macromolecular network at the molecular level. The herein‐produced CPO‐WPU hybrid coating shows excellent wear resistance and water resistance. Taber abrasion tests demonstrate that the CPO‐WPU coating can be capable of 15 500 turns at a load of 750 g, 2.2 times that of pure WPU coating, and the water‐resistance of CPO‐WPU coating is significantly improved compared with WPU coating due to its well‐integrated organic–inorganic network. Overall, the CPO‐WPU coating material significantly improves the mechanical strength, wear‐resistance, and water‐resistance, compared with the original WPU coating and other modified polyurethane. This hybrid coating can provide a potential application in paper‐making, textiles, and furniture due to its unique organic–inorganic network, low cost, and green process.
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