Self-healable castor oil based tough smart hyperbranched polyurethane nanocomposite with antimicrobial attributes

Here, castor oil-based tough hyperbranched polyurethane/sulfur nanoparticles decorated reduced graphene oxide (HPU/SRGO) nanocomposites are fabricated with different weight% of nanohybrid. Tremendous enhancement of mechanical properties, such as tensile strength (from 7.2 to 24.3 MPa), tensile modulus (from 3.3 to 137.7 MPa), toughness (from 25.4 to 313.52 MJ m(-3)) and elongation at break (from 710% to 1456%), is observed upon incorporation of nanohybrid in HPU matrix due to strong interaction between SRGO and HPU matrix. The nanocomposite exhibited excellent repeatable self-healing (within 50-60 s at 360 W under microwave and 5-7.5 min under sunlight) and shape recovery (within 30-50 s at 360 W under microwave and 1-3 min under sunlight). The nanocomposite also demonstrated profound microbial inhibitory effect against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. Thus, the studied nanocomposite has tremendous potential for various advanced applications.