Intermolecular self-assembly of dopamine-conjugated carboxymethylcellulose and carbon nanotubes toward supertough filaments and multifunctional wearables

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.128981Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • We fabricate DA-CMC/CNT filaments by intermolecular self-assembly effects.

  • The filaments display supertoughness, extensibility and electrical conductivity.

  • The filaments operated reproducibly and cyclically under various conditions.

  • We demonstrate body monitoring, wearables and electrothermal heating.

Abstract

The utilization of smart textiles, mainly in the form of yarns and wovens, requires high structural toughness and flexibility. To this end, we introduce a strategy based on the intermolecular self-assembly of dopamine-conjugated carboxymethyl cellulose (DA-CMC) with carbon nanotubes (CNT). Upon coagulation in a nonsolvent, the DA-CMC/CNT suspensions readily form composite filaments by the effects of hydrogen bonding, H-pi, anion-pi, and pi-pi interactions, as demonstrated by molecular dynamic simulation. The DA-CMC/CNT filaments display super-toughness (~76.2 MJ m−3), extensibility (strain to failure of ~14.8% at 90% RH, twice that of dopamine-free analogous systems) and high electrical conductivity. Moreover, the composite filaments form conductive networks that effectively support bending, strain and compression in air or fluid media. As such, they are suitable for application in wearables devices designed for sensing and electrothermal heating. Our proposed, scalable synthesis of multifunctional filaments opens new opportunities given their electroactivity and suitability for human interfacing.

Keywords

Intermolecular self-assembly
Multifunctional filaments
Wearables
Sensors
Electrothermal heating
Nanocomposites

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