Fatigue Resistant Bioinspired Composite from Synergistic Two-Dimensional Nanocomponents

Portable and wearable electronics require much more flexible graphene-based electrode with high fatigue life, which could repeatedly bend, fold, or stretch without sacrificing its mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. Herein, a kind of ultrahigh fatigue resistant graphene-based nanocomposite via tungsten disulfide (WS₂) nanosheets is synthesized by introducing a synergistic effect with covalently cross-linking inspired by the orderly layered structure and abundant interfacial interactions of nacre. The fatigue life of resultant graphene-based nanocomposites is more than one million times at the stress level of 270 MPa, and the electrical conductivity can be kept as high as 197.1 S/cm after 1.0 × 10⁵ tensile testing cycles. These outstanding properties are attributed to the synergistic effect from lubrication of WS₂ nanosheets for deflecting crack propagation, and covalent bonding between adjacent GO nanosheets for bridging crack, which is verified by the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The WS₂ induced synergistic effect with covalent bonding offers a guidance for constructing graphene-based nanocomposites with high fatigue life, which have great potential for applications in flexible and wearable electronic devices, etc.