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Plastic-Swelling Preparation of Functional Graphene Aerogel Fiber Textiles

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Abstract

Graphene aerogel fibers (GAFs) combine the advantages of lightweight, high specific strength and conductivity of graphene, showing great potential in multifunctional wearable textiles. However, the fabrication and application of GAF textiles are considerably limited by the low structural robustness of GAF. Here, we report a plastic-swelling method to fabricate GAF textiles with high performance and multi-functionalities. GAF textiles were achieved by plastic-swelling, the prewoven graphene oxide fiber (GOF) tow textiles. This near-solid plastic-swelling process allows GAFs in textiles to maintain high structural order and controllable density, and exhibit record-high tensile strength up to 103 MPa and electrical conductivity up to 1.06 × 104 S m−1 at the density of 0.4 g cm−3. GAF textiles exhibit high strength of 113 MPa, multiple electrical and thermal functions, and high porosity to serve as host materials for more functional guests. The plastic-swelling provides a general strategy to fabricate diverse aerogel fiber textiles, paving the road for their realistic application.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this stduy are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) for assistance in SAXS characterizations. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52090030, 52122301, 51973191, 52272046 and 51533008), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LR23E020003), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. K20200060, 2017QNA4036, 2017XZZX001-04, 226-2023-00023, 2021FZZX001-17), Hundred Talents Program of Zhejiang University (188020*194231701/113), Postdoctoral Research Program of Zhejiang province (ZJ2022079), Shanxi-Zheda Institute of New Materials and Chemical Engineering (Nos. 2022SZ-TD012, 2022SZ-TD011 and 2021SZ-FR004) and the International Research Center for X polymers.

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  1. Yuxiang Qi and Yuxing Xia have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, International Research Centre for X Polymers, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    Yuxiang Qi, Yuxing Xia, Peng Li, Ziqiu Wang, Xin Ming, Bo Wang, Kai Shen, Gangfeng Cai, Kaiwen Li, Yue Gao, Yingjun Liu, Chao Gao & Zhen Xu

  2. Shanxi-Zheda Institute of Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan, 030032, People’s Republic of China

    Yingjun Liu, Chao Gao & Zhen Xu

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  1. Yuxiang Qi
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Correspondence to Peng Li, Yingjun Liu, Chao Gao or Zhen Xu.

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There is no conflict of interest in the article. Chao Gao is an editorial board member for Advanced Fiber Materials and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

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Qi, Y., Xia, Y., Li, P. et al. Plastic-Swelling Preparation of Functional Graphene Aerogel Fiber Textiles. Adv. Fiber Mater. 5, 2016–2027 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-023-00316-1

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