Composited Gels from Nature Growing Scaffold: Synthesis, Properties, and Application

As a nature ultralight, well-aligned porous and anisotropy feedstock, cornstalk pith (CSP) has not been exploited for material design. Herein, we use CSP as substrate to prepare multifunctional elastic composite gels. First, CSP is pretreated by ferric chloride then immersed in an unsaturated monomer solution, following by a polymerization to form enhanced networks. The ferric ions act as junction sites for the combination between the polymer chains and the CSP matrix, therefore, dynamically reversible bonds are constructed. The bonds dissipate the compression force by breaking the dynamic bonds and reconstruct when the loading is removed. The reconstructed dynamic bonds endow an antifatigue performance of the prepared gels, in the cyclic compression test conducting 100 times with a 50% strain, and the gel holds a 94% elastic recovery. Furtherly, oil/water separation, cushioning system and biobased sensor are developed on the basis of what the matrix endows and what the reversible bonds exhibit. The preparation method in this study enriches a simply and high value-added method to utilize biobased material.