Water-dispersible and stable polydopamine coated cellulose nanocrystal-MXene composites for high transparent, adhesive and conductive hydrogels

High conductive and transparent hydrogels with adhesion function are ideal candidates for soft electronic devices. However, it remains a challenge to design appropriate conductive nanofillers to endow hydrogels with all these characteristics. The 2D MXene sheets are promising conductive nanofillers for hydrogels due to excellent electricity and water-dispersibility. However, MXene is quite susceptible to oxidation. In this study, polydopamine (PDA) was employed to protect the MXene from oxidation and meanwhile endow hydrogels with adhesion. However, PDA coated MXene (PDA@MXene) were easily flocculated from dispersion. 1D cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were employed as steric stabilizers to prevent the agglomeration of MXene during the self-polymerization of dopamine. The obtained PDA coated CNC-MXene (PCM) sheets display outstanding water-dispersible and anti-oxidation stability and are promising conductive nanofillers for hydrogels. During the fabrication of polyacrylamide hydrogels, the PCM sheets were partially degraded into PCM nanoflakes with smaller size, leading to transparent PCM-PAM hydrogels. The PCM-PAM hydrogels can self-adhere to skin, and possess high transmittance of 75 % at 660 nm, superior electric conductivity of 4.7 S/m with MXene content as low as 0.1 % and excellent sensitivity. This study will facilitate the development of MXene based stable, water-dispersible conductive nanofillers and multi-functional hydrogels.