Moisture-sensitive torsional cotton artificial muscle and textile

Developing moisture-sensitive artificial muscles from industrialized natural fibers with large abundance is highly desired for smart textiles that can respond to humidity or temperature change.However,currently most of fiber artificial muscles are based on non-common industrial textile materials or of a small portion of global textile fiber market.In this paper,we developed moisture-sensitive torsional artificial muscles and textiles based on cotton yarns.It was prepared by twisting the cotton yarn followed by folding in the middle point to form a self-balanced structure.The cotton yarn muscle showed a torsional stroke of 42.55°/mm and a rotational speed of 720 rpm upon exposure to water moisture.Good reversibility and retention of stroke during cyclic exposure and removal of water moisture were obtained.A moisturesensitive smart window that can close when it rains was demonstrated based on the torsional cotton yarn muscles.This twist-based technique combining natural textile fibers provides a new insight for construction of smart textile materials.

Size-refinement enhanced flexibility and electrochemical performance of MXene electrodes for flexible waterproof supercapacitors

Increasing mechanical flexibility without sacrificing electrochemical performance of the electrode material is highly desired in the design of flexible electrochemical energy storage devices.In metal-related materials science,decreasing the grain size introduces more grain boundaries;this stops dislocations and crack propagation under deformation,and results in increased strength and toughness.However,such a size refinement effect has not been considered in the mechanical properties,particle stacking,wetting,and electrochemical performances of flexible supercapacitor electrodes.In this paper,MXene was used as an electrode material to study the size refinement effect of flexible supercapacitors.Size refinement improved the strength and toughness of the MXene electrodes,and this resulted in increased flexibility.Finite elemental analysis provided a theoretical understanding of size refinement-increased flexibility.Moreover,the size refinement also improved the specific surface area,electric conductance,ion transportation,and water wetting properties of the electrode,and the size refinement provided highly increased energy density and power density of the MXene supercapacitors.A highly flexible,water-proof supercapacitor was fabricated using size-refined MXene.The current study provides a new viewpoint for designing tough and flexible energy storage electrodes.The size refinement effect may also be applicable for metal ion batteries and electronic and photo devices composed of MXene and other nanoparticles.

Intrinsic elastic conductors with internal buckled electron pathway for flexible electromagnetic interference shielding and tumor ablation

The elastic conductor is crucial in wearable electronics and soft robotics.The ideal intrinsic elastic bulk conductors show uniform three-dimensional conductive networks and stable resistance during large stretch.A challenge is that the variation of resistance is high under deformation due to disconnection of conductive pathway for bulk elastic conductors.Our strategy is to introduce buckled structure into the conductive network,by self-assembly of a carbon nanotube layer on the interconnecting micropore surface of a prestrained foam,followed by strain relaxation.Both unfolding of buckles and flattening of micropores contributed to the stability of the resistance under deformation(2.0%resistance variation under 70%strain).Microstructural analysis and finite element analysis illustrated different patterns of two-dimensional buckling structures could be obtained due to the imperfections in the conductive layer.Applications as all-directional interconnects,stretchable electromagnetic interference shielding and electrothermal tumor ablation were demonstrated.