Self-healing CNTs/PDMS-BA composites as nonlinear optical limiter

The development of nonlinear optical limiting (NOL) materials with self-healing represents a significant new breakthrough in the field of optical limiting. Here, we innovatively prepare a novel self-healing NOL composites which is carbon nanotubes doped polydimethylsiloxane-boric acid crosslinked (CNTs-doped PDMS-BA, CPB), and achieve an excellent NOL performance. The dynamic network formed through transesterification between PDMS chains and BA enables efficient self-healing after mechanical damage, while CNTs ensure robust NOL properties. We experimentally measure the self-healing capability of CPB at different temperatures (25°C, 50°C, and 75°C), demonstrating elevated temperatures can accelerate self-healing. Even if CPB is damaged by laser, it can still achieve self-healing by excising the damaged spot, enabling its recyclability. We also measure the transmittance of 1 and 2 mm-thick CPB with 0.54 and 0.62 mg/mL CNTs concentrations under a nanosecond pulse laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm. For the 2 mm-thick CPB at 0.62 mg/mL, the linear and minimum transmittance with NOL effects at 1064 nm are 62.6% and 27.2%, respectively. Furthermore, cycling performance of CPB show that the NOL performance only decrease by 5% within three cycles. These outstanding features highlight the practical adaptability and stability of CPB, and the high damage threshold also indicates that CPB is a promising NOL composites.