Dynamic Sustainable Polyimide Film Combining Hardness with Softness via a “Mimosa‐Like” Bionic Strategy

Abstract

Dielectric polyimides (PIs) are ubiquitous as insulation in electrical power systems and electronic devices. Generally, dynamic polyimide is required to solve irreversible failure processes of electrical or mechanical damage, for example, under high temperature, pressure, and field strength. The challenge lies in the design of the molecular structure of rigid polyimide to achieve dynamic reversibility. Herein, a low‐molecular‐weight polyimide gene unit is designed to crosslink with polyimide ligase to prepare the smart film. Interestingly, due to the variability of gene unit and ligase combinations, the polyimide films combining hardness with softness are designed into three forms via a “Mimosa‐like” bionic strategy to adapt to different application scenarios. Meanwhile, the films have good degradation efficiency, excellent recyclability, and can be self‐healable, which makes them reuse. Clearly, the films can be used in the preparation of ultrafast sensors with a response time ≈0.15 s and the application of corona‐resistant films with 100% recovery. Furthermore, the construction of polyimide and carbon‐fiber‐reinforced composites (CFRCs) has been verified to apply to the worse environment. Nicely, the composites have the property of multiple cycles and the non‐destructive recycle rate of carbon fiber (CF) is as high as 100%. The design idea of preparing high‐strength dynamic polyimide by crosslinking simple polyimide gene unit with ligase could provide a good foundation and a clear case for the sustainable development of electrical and electronic polyimides, from the perspective of Mimosa bionics.

A systematic study of the relationship between the high-frequency dielectric dissipation factor and water adsorption of polyimide films

“…Polyimide has been widely used in flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs), organic electronic devices, and gas separation for many years owing to its good mechanical properties, dielectric properties, thermostability, dimensional stability, and other advantages. [14][15][16][17][18] Unfortunately, polyimide generally has a high D f (40.012) at high frequencies (such as 10 GHz), which usually cannot meet the requirements of high-frequency transmission. In addition, these issues, such as what are the important factors affecting the high-frequency dissipation factor of polyimide and how to reduce its D f , have not been clearly discussed so far.…”

Bionic structures for optimizing the design of stealth materials

“…At present, many design principles or materials inspired by biology have been applied in actual production and real life. For example, conch-inspired sound-absorbing materials, 10 bambooinspired toughened alloy wire 11 and mimosa-inspired degradable and self-repairing dynamic sustainable polyimide films 12 are manufactured by imitating creatures in nature. Many organisms can reduce the absorption, reflection, scattering and diffraction of light by producing special substances or utilizing structures at different scales.…”

Recent Advances in Sources of Bio‐Inspiration and Materials for Robotics and Actuators

“…Nature can be regarded as a large-scale system of engineering derived from billions of years of organism survival and evolution exploration. The bionic study of the universal physical Anisotropy and isotropic wettability (reed leaf and lotus leaf) Dual bionic platforms and skin-imitating tactile sensors [30,74,75] Polystyrene microspheres (lotus leaf) Flicking action of human fingers, photoelectric driving modes, and special photoelectric co-induced microrobots [76] Janus polydopamine (PDA)-polyethylene terephthalate/polytetrafluoroethylene (PET/PTFE) membrane…”