Surface functionalization of transition metal dichalcogenides for intrinsically self-healing hydrogels Chirag R. Ratwani 1 , Mark Hadfield 1 , Ali Reza Kamali 2 , Amor M. Abdelkader 1 1 Department of Design and Engineering, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole, BH12 5BB, United Kingdom 2Energy and Environmental Materials Research Centre (E2MC), School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, People’s Republic of China Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have attracted a lot of research in the post-graphene era of 2D materials owing to their excellent electronic and tribological properties. Polymer-TMD nanocomposites are continuously being developed due to their favourable properties and potential applications in electromagnetic interference shielding 1 , dielectric energy storage and wearable smart devices 2 . Due to the constant loading-unloading of stresses on such materials in the application, it is highly desirable to design smart materials which can heal themselves. Usually, when highly inert nanomaterials like TMDs are used for self-healing polymers, they hinder the healing process by disrupting the chain movement in the matrix. In this work, we show that thiol-ligand conjugation can be employed to modify TMDs with an organic thiol and impart hydrogen bonding sites to the nanosheets. The hybrid hydrogel displayed excellent healing efficiency (>90%) and significantly improved tensile strength. Moreover, the hydrogel retained its healing ability after separating the cleaved pieces for 12 hours. The performance of this hydrogel has also been compared with 2D Graphene oxide-based composites. The prepared hydrogel provides a new idea in developing polymer-semiconductor nanocomposites and gives a glimpse into advanced stretchable self-healing composites with conductivity and biocompatibility. References 1. Sushmita, K., G. Madras and S. Bose (2020). 2. "Polymer Nanocomposites Containing Semiconductors as Advanced Materials for EMI Shielding." ACS Omega 5(10): 4705- 4718. 3. Yuan, C., Y. Zhou, Y. Zhu, J. Liang, S. Wang, S. Peng, Y. Li, S. Cheng, M. Yang, J. Hu, B. Zhang, R. Zeng, J. He and Q. Li (2020). 4. "Polymer/molecular semiconductor all-organic composites for high-temperature dielectric energy storage." Nature Communications 11(1): 3919.
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