Processing cellulose@Fe3O4 into mechanical, magnetic and biodegradable synapse-like material

Abstract

Despite of the remarkable progress in effort to fabricate information storage materials in this digital age, it remains a huge challenge to develop the integrated renewable material combining high density magnetic medium, excellent mechanical and biodegradable properties via green and facile method. Synapses on the neurons are a perfect model for efficient mass transport and information transmission by reaction network. Inspired by the morphology of the network structure, we design the synapse-like cellulose@Fe3O4 composites (CFCs). The reactive cores (Fe3O4) are anchored onto the cellulose chains acting as magnetic synapses that impart compact structure for bulk cellulose@Fe3O4 composites (BCFCs) at the interface mediated by hydrogen bonds. Due to the additivity and cooperativity of hydrogen bonds, the BCFCs are prepared via in-situ formation of Fe3O4 NPs on the cellulose chains followed by hot-pressing, leading to high density (~1.7 g/cm3) magnetic medium, high compressive strength (CS) (~213.6 ± 3.5 MPa), and excellent biodegradable property. Our work offers a promising strategy to fabricate BCFCs for bio-compatible and military applications, capable to physically vanish at prescribed times once they are no longer needed.