Extremely Robust and Multifunctional Nanocomposite Fibers for Strain‐Unperturbed Textile Electronics

Abstract

emerged as a next-generation technology that may find significant applications in applications where bendability, stretchability, wearability, portability, and lightness are needed. [1][2][3] Advanced fibers with integrated functionalities (i.e., conductivity) are of great interest for achieving wearable high-performance textile fabrics. Robustness, a rare yet important property allowing a system to maintain a stable structure and function against uncertainty perturbations, is highly required for wearable textile electronics. [4,5] In practical use, textile electronics are generally conformably attached or worn on the human body. Human motion is accompanied by irregular skin deformations that inevitably stretch or bend the textile electronics. Thus, robust textile electronics must function unalterably when disturbed by variable strain or stress. [6][7][8] To this end, functional fibers with intrinsically high robustness and multifunctionality may provide advanced fabric materials for achieving textile electronics with strain-unperturbed performance. However, achieving high-performance multifunctional fibers with high structural robustness and high damage resistance against strain remains a grand challenge. [3,9,10] From the viewpoint of material science, the robustness and multifunctionality of synthetic fibers are usually mutually Textile electronics are needed that can achieve strain-unaltered performance when they undergo irregular and repeated strain deformation. Such strainunaltered textile electronics require advanced fibers that simultaneously have high functionalities and extreme robustness as fabric materials. Current synthetic nanocomposite fibers based on inorganic matrix have remarkable functionalities but often suffer from low robustness and poor tolerance against crack formation. Here, we present a design for a high-performance multifunctional nanocomposite fiber that is mechanically and electrically robust, which was realized by crosslinking titanium carbide (MXene) nanosheets with a slide-ring polyrotaxane to form an internal mechanically-interlocked network. This inorganic matrix nanocomposite fiber featured distinct strain-hardening mechanical behavior and exceptional load-bearing capability (toughness approaching 60 MJ m −3 and ductility over 27%). It retained 100% of its ductility after cyclic strain loading. Moreover, the high electrical conductivity (>1.1 × 10 5 S m −1 ) and electrochemical performance (>360 F cm −3 ) of the nanocomposite fiber can be well retained after subjecting the fiber to extensive (>25% strain) and long-term repeated (10 000 cycles) dimensional changes. Such superior robustness allowed for the fabrication of the nanocomposite fibers into various robust wearable devices, such as textile-based electromechanical sensors with strain-unalterable sensing performance and fiber-shaped supercapacitors with invariant electrochemical performance for 10 000 strain loading cycles.

MXene Fibers for Flexible and Wearable Electronics: Recent Progress and Future Perspectives

“…(ii) (iii) SEM cross-sectional images of MXene-based fibers. [27] (c) Electrospinning. (i) (ii) SEM images of MXene/PVA nanofibers.…”

“…(i) Photograph of the MXene fiber wound on a drum. (ii) (iii) SEM cross‐sectional images of MXene‐based fibers [27] . (c) Electrospinning.…”

“…The weak interlayer interactions between MXene layers make it challenging to continuously and directly process them into fibers on a large scale using wet spinning techniques. One way to facilitate the processing of MXene fibers is to add blend materials as functional components, such as polyrotaxane, [27] reduced graphene oxide [32] (rGO), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [33] poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), [34] polyurethane (PU), [35] cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), [36] polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), [37] among others, to produce MXene‐based composite fibers. These MXene‐based composite fibers demonstrate excellent electrical, mechanical, and electrochemical properties through wet spinning techniques.…”

“…By the synergistic interaction of covalent and hydrogen bonds at the interface, MXene/PVA composite fibers were obtained with high mechanical strength (585.5±2.1 MPa) and high toughness (66.7±5.0 MJ m −3 ). Liang [27] et al. used a wet spinning technique to prepare MXene/polyrotaxane fibers.…”

“…These MXene-based composite fibers demonstrate excellent electrical, mechanical, and electrochemical properties through wet spinning techniques. For example, Liang [27] et al synthesized a novel water-based composite ink without non-functional additives using twodimensional MXene nanosheets and polyrotaxane. They prepared high-performance multifunctional nanocomposite fibers using wet spinning technology.…”