Extremely Robust and Multifunctional Nanocomposite Fibers for Strain-Unperturbed Textile Electronics

Textile electronics are needed that can achieve  strain-unaltered performance when they undergo irregular and repeated  strain deformation. Such strain-unaltered textile electronics require  advanced fibers that simultaneously have high functionalities and  extreme robustness as fabric materials. Current synthetic nanocomposite  fibers based on inorganic matrix have remarkable functionalities but  often suffer from low robustness and poor tolerance against crack  formation. Here, we present a design for a high-performance  multifunctional nanocomposite fiber that is mechanically and  electrically robust, which was realized by crosslinking titanium carbide  (MXene) nanosheets with a slide-ring polyrotaxane to form an internal  mechanically-interlocked network. This inorganic matrix nanocomposite  fiber featured distinct strain-hardening mechanical behavior and  exceptional load-bearing capability (toughness approaching 60 MJ m⁻³  and ductility over 27%). It retained 100% of its ductility after cyclic  strain loading. Moreover, the high electrical conductivity (>1.1 ×  10⁵ S m⁻¹) and electrochemical performance (>360 F cm⁻³)  of the nanocomposite fiber can be well retained after subjecting the  fiber to extensive (>25% strain) and long-term repeated (10 000  cycles) dimensional changes. Such superior robustness allowed for the  fabrication of the nanocomposite fibers into various robust wearable  devices, such as textile-based electromechanical sensors with  strain-unalterable sensing performance and fiber-shaped supercapacitors  with invariant electrochemical performance for 10 000 strain loading  cycles.