Recently, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based porous materials have been regarded as ideal candidates in various applications. We created a PDMS composite sponge decorated with reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/carbon nanotube (CNT) fillers via polydopamine (PDA). Specifically, a manufactured PDMS sponge was prepared by a sacrificial template approach and then PDA was decorated on a network of PDMS sponges by dopamine selfpolymerization. PDA tightly and firmly attached to the PDMS sponge skeleton, which makes the superhydrophobic PDMS sponge hydrophilic providing adsorption sites for rGO and CNT fillers; thus, the compatibility between fillers and the PDMS matrix was improved. The developed rGO-CNT/PDA@PDMS composite sponge exhibited excellent sensing characteristics, photothermal effect, and superwettability simultaneously. The rGO-CNT/PDA@PDMS-based sensor has a wide strain range (0−60%), high sensitivity (GF = 2.13), and stability (500 loading/unloading cycles). Additionally, rGO-CNT/PDA@PDMS exhibits excellent oil−water separation performance and high-efficiency absorption of oils. Simultaneously, the rGO-CNT/PDA@PDMS sponge was also proved to possess good photothermal conversion performance. Therefore, the environmentally friendly and multifunctional rGO-CNT/PDA@PDMS composite sponge exhibits superior potential for application in flexible intelligent wearable devices, oily wastewater, and seawater desalination.
In the past few decades, many interesting biomaterials with unforeseen properties have attracted considerable attention due to its unique micro‐nano structure. In this work, a bio‐inspired design was proposed to develop the epoxidized natural rubber latex (ENRL)@polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) three‐dimensional (3D) porous material. Herein, the obtained epoxidized natural rubber/polyvinyl alcohol (ENR@PVA) exhibits a “grapevine‐grape” like networks with robust PVA as “grapevine” and soft latex particles as “grape”. Owing to the synergistic effect of those hierarchical micro‐nano structures and abundant hydrophilic oxygen‐containing groups, the ENR@PVA exhibits superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic functionality. Accordingly, benefiting from the superwettability features, the ENR@PVA shows superior separation (oil rejections are all above 99.5%) and anti‐fouling performances. More importantly, the integration of excellent flexibility and mechanical robustness guarantees a superior mechanical stability for sustainable reusability and oil recovery in the practical applications. Therefore, the research findings might promote the development of the 3D porous material and its future application for high performance oily wastewater remediation.
A longstanding challenge in fabricating high-dielectric polymer composite is how to rationalize structure design to improve dielectric constant while minimizing dielectric loss. In this work, we provide a critical material design concept for high-performance flexible dielectric nanocomposite (PCGA) based on backfilling polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix into the pre-constructed chitosan-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) aerogel with 3D conductive network. Herein, the 3D conductive network enables PCGA to achieve the percolation threshold with a small amount of rGO, which improving the dielectric constant. Simultaneously, the chitosan insulating barrier layer prevents the generation of leakage current between conductive fillers interfaces, which suppressing the losses of the PCGA, thus ensuring the balance between dielectric constant and loss. The results demonstrated that the PCGA (0.06 g rGO) exhibited a dielectric constant as high as 297.3 and a loss tangent as low as 1.91. Subsequently, the as-obtained PCGA composites as a dielectric interlayer was employed for preparing capacitive sensor. The results demonstrated that the sensor possesses a desirable integration of high sensitivity (5.8% kPa À1 in the pressure range 0-7 kPa) and wide work range (0-140 kPa) due to the synergistic effect of the excellent mechanical performance along with highdielectric constant and suppressed loss.
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