Multifunctional sandwich-like composite film based on superhydrophobic MXene for self-cleaning, photodynamic and antimicrobial applications

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.140457
• Publication Date: 2022-11-17T04:10:47Z
• Authors: Shuwei Tang; Zhengguo Wu; Guangxin Feng; Lansheng Wei; Jiayao Weng; Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky; Xiaoying Wang
• Keywords: Nanocellulose; Surface Modification; Photothermal effect

Although Ti3C2Tx MXene has been widely investigated for diverse applications due to its excellent performance, it has long faced challenges such as hydrophilicity, oxidation susceptibility and poor mechanical properties. In this work, surface functionalization using perfluorosilane (PFOTS) was applied to endow MXene with super-hydrophobicity, improving its stability, and the resulting materials remained unaltered after at least 150 days. Superhydrophobic composite film with a sandwich-like structure was prepared from superhydrophobic MXene and TEMPO-oxidized nanocellulose through layer-by-layer self-assembly method. The resulting hybrid film exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength, which could be fold into various shapes and easily support a considerable weight (ca. 1 kg). The superhydrophobic composite film displays a high-water contact angle of over 153°, showing excellent self-cleaning ability, water repellency and durability. The composite film also shows high photothermal conversion capacity and stability, being able to rapidly increase the temperature over 100 °C under NIR laser irradiation, maintaining it during long time. Interestingly, the combination of super-hydrophobicity and photothermal conversion ability of the composite film successfully achieves controllable light-driven motion and enhanced antibacterial properties by the simultaneous integration of super-hydrophobicity, antiadhesion and long-lasting photothermal sterilization properties. The resulting multifunctional film not only expands knowledge of superhydrophobic surfaces, but also provides valuable new options and strategies for potential applications in light-sensitive robotics, free-standing flexible electronic solids, and improved antibacterial materials. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.<br/>Peer reviewed<br/>This work was financially supported by the State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering (No. 2022C02), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22108087), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2022ZYGXZR105), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2020B1515120038 and 2020A1515110004), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangzhou City (No. 202102020007). E. R-H acknowledges financial support from the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Spain, project PID2019-105479RB-I00).<br/>