MXene-Mediated Cellulose\nConductive Hydrogel with\nUltrastretchability and Self-Healing Ability

Abstract

Constructing natural polymers such as cellulose, chitin,\nand chitosan\ninto hydrogels with excellent stretchability and self-healing properties\ncan greatly expand their applications but remains very challenging.\nGenerally, the polysaccharide-based hydrogels have suffered from the\ntrade-off between stiffness of the polysaccharide and stretchability\ndue to the inherent nature. Thus, polysaccharide-based hydrogels (polysaccharides\nact as the matrix) with self-healing properties and excellent stretchability\nare scarcely reported. Here, a solvent-assisted strategy was developed\nto construct MXene-mediated cellulose conductive hydrogels with excellent\nstretchability (∼5300%) and self-healability. MXene (an emerging\ntwo-dimensional nanomaterial) was introduced as emerging noncovalent\ncross-linking sites between the solvated cellulose chains in a benzyltrimethyl­ammonium\nhydroxide aqueous solution. The electrostatic interaction between\nthe cellulose chains and terminal functional groups (O, OH, F) of\nMXene led to cross-linking of the cellulose chains by MXene to form\na hydrogel. Due to the excellent properties of the cellulose–MXene\nconductive hydrogel, the work not only enabled their strong potential\nin both fields of electronic skins and energy storage but provided\nfresh ideas for some other stubborn polymers such as chitin to prepare\nhydrogels with excellent properties.