Preparation and Properties of Cellulose Nanocrystalline/Carbon Nanotube Composite Conductive Hydrogels

In this paper, the composite solution was prepared by one-pot method, with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the matrix material, cellulose nanocrystalline, aluminum chloride (AlCl3), and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as the filling material, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as the organic solvent. The effect of Al3+ concentration on the conductivity of composite conductive hydrogel was studied by controlling the content of AlCl3. The microstructure, mechanical properties and electrical properties of the composite conductive hydrogel were characterized. The results show that when the CNC content is 0.2%, the composite conductive hydrogel has good mechanical properties (tensile stress is 0.91 MPa, elongation at break is 287.49%). The control CNC content remained unchanged, and the ionic conductivity of the composite conductive hydrogel increased with the increase of Al3+ concentration, and when the Al3+ concentration was 0.125 mol/L, the conductivity of the composite conductive hydrogel was 0.543s/m. The hydrogels prepared in this study have good mechanical, electrical properties, also has huge application potential in the field of human body detection and wearable soft electronic devices.