Heterogeneous self-healing assembly of MXene and graphene oxide enables producing free-standing and self-reparable soft electronics and robots

Jia-Nan Ma; Yong-Lai Zhang; Yu-Qing Liu; Dong-Dong Han; Jiang-Wei Mao; Jia-Rui Zhang; Wu-Chao Zhao; Hong-Bo Sun

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2021.11.015

Heterogeneous self-healing assembly of MXene and graphene oxide enables producing free-standing and self-reparable soft electronics and robots

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2022 Mar 15;67(5):501-511. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.11.015. Epub 2021 Nov 22.

Authors

Jia-Nan Ma¹, Yong-Lai Zhang², Yu-Qing Liu¹, Dong-Dong Han¹, Jiang-Wei Mao¹, Jia-Rui Zhang¹, Wu-Chao Zhao³, Hong-Bo Sun⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China. Electronic address: yonglaizhang@jlu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Precision Measurement Technology and Instruments, Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

PMID: 36546171
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2021.11.015

Abstract

Self-healing materials (SHMs) with unique mechanical and electronic properties are promising for self-reparable electronics and robots. However, the self-healing ability of emerging two-dimensional (2D) materials, for instance, MXenes, has not been systematically investigated, which limits their applications in self-healing electronics. Herein, we report the homogeneous self-healing assembly (homo-SHA) of MXene and the heterogeneous self-healing assembly (hetero-SHA) of MXene and graphene oxide (GO) under moisture treatments. The self-healing mechanism has been attributed to the hydration induced interlayer swelling of MXene and GO and the recombination of hydrogen bond networks after water desorption. The multiform hetero-SHA of MXene and GO not only enables facile fabrication of free-standing soft electronics and robots, but also endows the resultant devices with damage-healing properties. As proof-of-concept demonstrations, free-standing soft electronic devices including a generator, a humidity sensor, a pressure sensor, and several robotic devices have been fabricated. The hetero-SHA of MXene and GO is simple yet effective, and it may pioneer a new avenue to develop miniature soft electronics and robots based on 2D materials.

Keywords: Graphene oxide; MXene; Self-healing; Soft electronics; Soft robots.