Leaf vein-inspired engineering of MXene@SrSn(OH)6 nanorods towards super-tough elastomer nanocomposites with outstanding fire safety

Abstract The progress of super-robust, high ductile polymeric nanocomposite with superior safety have been caught increasing eyesight for the application in electronic products. In this article, strontium hydroxystannate (SSO) nanorods were in-situ fabricated on the surface of titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) MXene nanosheets (MSSO) for improving fire safety and mechanical property of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to further applications of portable devices. With biomimetic method, the tensile robustness and toughness of TPU-2.0MSSO was enhanced by 46% and 126%, respectively. In addition, the TPU-MSSO nanocomposites performed leaf vein-inspired hierarchical structure during the stretching behavior, resulting 55% enhancement of elongation at break. Furthermore, the fire safety was systematically evaluated, and the peak heat release rate (pHRR) decreased by 37.31%. Above all, hazardous pyrolysis products of TPU during the combustion were also efficiently reduced, especially the generation of carbon oxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were decreased by 96.04% and 89.85% when the additive of MSSO was only 2 wt%. As a result, ternary catalytic effect and labyrinth structure improved the safety of TPU in modern electronic products. Hence, this leaf vein-inspired TPU-MSSO nanocomposites not only exhibit superior toughness but also reinforce fire safety while facing thermal runaway, which was significant to destroy the formation of thermal disaster chain and maintain further applications of additional products for portable devices, and package materials for flexible electronics.