Mechanical Reinforcement of Free-Standing Polymeric Nanomembranes via Aluminosilicate Nanotube Scaffolding

Owing to their nanometer thickness, large lateral dimensions, and self-supporting properties, free-standing nanomembranes (FS-NMs) exhibit outstanding advantages. However, FS-NMs suffer from macroscopic instability, making mechanical reinforcement still a detrimental challenge for their full exploitation. In this paper, we reported a simple strategy for the mechanical enhancement of nanomembranes based on free-standing polymers with thicknesses of less than 100 nm via the incorporation of aluminosilicate nanotube (ASNT) bed scaffolds. The composite nanomembranes of ASNT/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) demonstrated a 4-fold increase in tensile strength and biaxial modulus over 43 times higher compared to the PDMS film. This approach could be extended to other polymers, even polymers with a less-film-forming nature.