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Electrically conductive and mechanically tough graphene nanocomposite hydrogels with self‐oscillating performance
Author(s) -
Ren Jie,
Zhang Aixia,
Zhang Lan,
Li Yan,
Yang Wu
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.5807
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , materials science , graphene , nanocomposite , ultimate tensile strength , composite material , oxide , conductivity , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , polymer chemistry , chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Conventional hydrogels are extremely brittle, fragile and poorly conductive, which limits their applications in a variety of aspects. In this study, we fabricated a novel kind of nanocomposite self‐oscillating hydrogel poly(AA‐ co ‐Fe(phen) 3 )/PVA/RGO with high conductivity and good mechanical strength by dispersing reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Due to the synergetic effect of RGO dispersed in the hydrogels or dry gels and Fe metal which is the reduction product of the Fe(phen) 3 moiety by RGO, the hydrogels have a high conductivity of 18.2 S m −1 with 0.67 wt% RGO content. The dispersed RGO in the hydrogels combined with the network structure by means of hydrogen bonding, π–π stacking and electrostatic interaction and was demonstrated to enhance the mechanical properties of the hydrogels. The elastic modulus achieves 65.2 kPa (1020% of the tensile strength) and 236.4 kPa (with 70% compression), respectively. In addition, the prepared hydrogels exhibit a self‐oscillating behavior in a Belousov–Zhabotinsky solution free of catalyst. These results can be broadly applied in the future in the development of an autonomous on–off switching, flexible/stretchable, graphene‐based soft electronic device. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry