Inorganic nanotube mesophases enable strong self-healing fibers

Abstract

The assembly of one-dimensional nanomaterials into macroscopic fibers can improve mechanical as well as multifunctional performance. Double walled aluminogermanate imogolite nanotubes are geo-inspired analogs of carbon nanotubes, synthesized at low temperature, with complementary properties. Here, continuous imogolite based fibers are wet spun within a polyvinyl alcohol matrix. The lyotropic liquid crystallinity of the system produces highly aligned fibers with tensile stiffness and strength up to 24.1 GPa (14.1 N tex⁻¹) and 0.8 GPa (0.46 N tex⁻¹), respectively. Significant enhancements over the pure polymer control are quantitatively attributed to both matrix refinement and direct nanoscale reinforcement, by fitting an analytical model. Most intriguingly, imogolite-based fibers show a high degree of healability via evaporation induced self assembly, recovering up to 44%, and 19% of the original fiber tensile stiffness and strength, respectively. This recovery at high absolute strength highlights a general strategy for the development of high-performance healable fibers relevant to composite structures and other applications.