Ultrarobust, tough and highly stretchable self-healing materials based on cartilage-inspired noncovalent assembly nanostructure

This paper introduces an ultra-robust self-healing material inspired by biological cartilage. High-density noncovalent bonds are incorporated at the interfaces between tannic acid-modified tungsten disulfide nanosheets and a polyurethane matrix, creating strong interfacial interaction. The resulting nanocomposite exhibits excellent tensile strength (52.3 MPa), high toughness (282.7 MJ m⁻³), high stretchability (1020.8%), and excellent healing efficiency (80–100%). This surpasses previous limitations of noncovalent bonding self-healing materials, where high mechanical robustness and healing ability were mutually exclusive. The interfacial supramolecular crosslinking also enables functional healing in flexible smart actuation devices, opening avenues for ultrarobust self-healing materials in various flexible functional devices.

Yuyan Wang, Xin Huang, Xinxing Zhang