Bio-inspired stem-like composites based on highly aligned SiC nanowires

Biomimetic materials based on eco-friendly polymers are increasingly becoming new functional materials for their superior engineering performances in practical applications and are promising to replace the traditional petroleum-derived plastics. Among the reported assembly processes, methods to construct highly aligned structures often involve complicated steps, while those simple processing methods can’t achieve desired orientation degree. Inspired by nature, we show a facile method to construct stem-like composites by mechanical inducing self-assembly method through shape memory effects of poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC). Silicon carbide nanowires (SiCNWs) are orderly aligned in the PPC matrix during the stretching process and also act as physical netpoints to maintain the highly aligned structure of the composites. Benefit from the unique stem-like structure, the resultant PPC/SiCNWs composites not only possess superior thermal conductivity, good shape memory properties but also display much higher tensile strength and ductility properties compared with those random SiCNWs enhanced PPC nanocomposites. Such a construction method has no size restriction or fundamental barrier for further scale-up and can be easily extended to other composites with aligned reinforcing agents of 1D or 2D nanofillers, providing a new strategy for the rational design of high-performance biomimetic composites in an efficient and sustainable way.