Self-Healing Graphene Oxide Based Functional Architectures Triggered by Moisture

Self-healing materials are capable of spontaneously repairing themselves at damaging sites without additional adhesives. They are important functional materials with wide applications in actuators, shape memorizing materials, smart coatings, and medical treatments, etc. Herein, this study reports the self-healing of graphene oxide (GO) functional architectures and devices with the assistance of moisture. These GO architectures can completely restore their mechanical-performance (e.g., compressibility, flexibility, and strength) after healing their broken sites using a little amount of water moisture. On the basis of this effective moisture-triggered self-healing process, this study develops GO smart actuators (e.g., bendable actuator, biomimetic walker, rotatable fiber motor) and sensors with self-healing ability. This work provides a new pathway for the development of self-healing materials for their applications in multidimensional spaces and functional devices.