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Achieving room-temperature self-healing of mechanoluminescent materials by dynamic borate ester bonding

基于动态硼酸酯键的室温自愈合应力发光材料

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Abstract

The mechanoluminescent (ML) stress sensing technology based on a unique mechano-to-photon conversion principle has exhibited great potentials in fields of flexible electronics, structural health diagnosis, biomechanical engineering, and self-powered displays. However, a big challenge for the ML sensing technology is that ML sensing materials with a typical inorganics@organics structure will be damaged when the applied mechanical load exceeds its strength limit, which thus reduces the reliability and durability of the sensing system. Herein, we propose a self-healing method to solve the failure of sensing materials by constructing a polyborosiloxane/ polydimethylsiloxane (PBS/PDMS) dual-network structure. The dynamic borate ester bonding in the PBS network provides self-healing capability, and the chemically crosslinked PDMS network enables the ML materials to maintain good elasticity and structural stability. The mechanical properties and ML properties of the dual-network material can be effectively restored even after fatal fracture, with a 75% recovery rate in tensile strength and nearly 100% recovery of mechano-to-photon conversion efficiency after 10 min at room temperature. The self-healing ML materials allow to greatly promote the applications of ML technologies for complex, high-strength and flexible stress sensing.

摘要

基于应力发光的应力传感技术因其独特的机械-光子转换性质在柔性电子、 结构健康诊断、 生物力学工程和自供电显示等领域显示出巨大的潜力. 然而, 应力发光传感技术面临的一大挑战是当施加的机械载荷超过其强度极限时, 具有典型无机@有机结构的应力发光传感材料将被损坏, 从而降低其传感系统的可靠性和耐久性. 本文提出了一种自修复方法, 即通过构建聚硼硅氧烷/聚二甲基硅氧烷(PBS/PDMS)双网络结构来解决传感材料的失效问题. PBS网络中的动态硼酸酯键提供自愈合能力, 化学交联的PDMS网络使应力发光材料保持良好的弹性和结构稳定性. 这种双网络结构材料的力学性能和应力发光性能即使在遭受致命的断裂后也能得到有效恢复, 室温下修复10分钟后拉伸强度恢复率为75%, 机械-光子转换效率恢复率近100%. 这种自修复的应力发光材料可以极大地促进应力发光技术在复杂、 高强度和柔性应力传感中的应用.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52172156 and 51832005), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (2023J06005), and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LD22E010001). The authors would like to thank Prof. Hua Bai, Prof. Hao Xue and Dr. Zewen Lin from Xiamen University for the technical support of mechanical property measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials and Fujian Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Engineering for High Performance Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Zhu Lin  (林珠), Changjian Chen  (陈昌健), Honghui Huang  (黄鸿辉), Yixi Zhuang  (庄逸熙) & Rong-Jun Xie  (解荣军)

  2. State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, School of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Beibei Xu  (许贝贝)

  3. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Rong-Jun Xie  (解荣军)

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  1. Zhu Lin  (林珠)
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  2. Changjian Chen  (陈昌健)
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  3. Honghui Huang  (黄鸿辉)
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  4. Beibei Xu  (许贝贝)
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  5. Yixi Zhuang  (庄逸熙)
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  6. Rong-Jun Xie  (解荣军)
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Contributions

Author contributions Zhuang Y and Lin Z conceived and designed the experiments. Xie RJ, Zhuang Y and Xu B supervised the research. Lin Z, Chen C, and Huang H were primarily responsible for data collection and analysis. Lin Z and Zhuang Y prepared the figures and wrote the main manuscript text. All authors contributed to data analysis, discussion and manuscript preparation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yixi Zhuang  (庄逸熙) or Rong-Jun Xie  (解荣军).

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary information Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Zhu Lin is currently a Master student at the College of Materials, Xiamen University. She completed her Bachelor degree in 2016 from Fujian Normal University. Her current research focuses on mechanoluminescent materials.

Yixi Zhuang received his PhD degree from the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University in 2014. Now he is an associate professor at the College of Materials, Xiamen University. His current research focuses on persistent luminescent materials, mechanoluminescent materials, metal-organic frameworks and their applications for bio-imaging, optical data storage, and advanced anti-counterfeiting.

Rong-Jun Xie received his PhD degree from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Now he is currently a professor at the College of Materials, Xiamen University. His research interests include rare-earth-doped nitride phosphors for w-LEDs, luminescent materials for laser-driven white lighting and displays, and quantum dots.

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Lin, Z., Chen, C., Huang, H. et al. Achieving room-temperature self-healing of mechanoluminescent materials by dynamic borate ester bonding. Sci. China Mater. 66, 4464–4472 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-023-2579-5

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