Bioinspired mineral MXene hydrogels for tensile strain sensing and radionuclide adsorption applications

Abstract

MXene-based hydrogels have drawn considerable attention as flexible and wearable sensors. However, the application of MXene-based hydrogels after sensing failure has rarely been investigated, which is of great significance for expanding their engineering application. In this work, multifunctional mineral MXene hydrogels (MMHs) were synthesized via a simple method inspired by biomineralization. The prepared MMHs were stretchable, self-healable and conductive, and can be used to fabricate wearable tensile strain sensors showing a super-wide sensing range with excellent sensitivity. MMHs-based strain sensors were designed to be directly attached to the skin surface to detect tiny and large human motions. In addition, with the advantages of a large specific area, excellent hydrophilicity and abundant active adsorption sites for MXene nanosheets and hydrogels, dehydrated MMHs were used as highly efficient adsorbents for the removal of strontium ions from aqueous solutions. This work shows the great potential of MXene in promoting the development of next-generation functional materials.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

MXene / hydrogel / flexible sensor / adsorption

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Electronic supplementary materials

are available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-022-1181-2 and https://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-022-1181-2 and are accessible for authorized users.

Declaration of competing interest

There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities and also supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC1402504).

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