Intelligent bamboo: A splendid flame retardant, fire warning and photothermal sterilization nanocoating via low-temperature evaporation induced self-assembly

[Display omitted] •Establishing a solid connection between MXene and bamboo without the use of adhesive.•The synergism between APP and MXene causes AM@TB obtained excellent thermal stability.•The AM@TB has sensitive and repeatable fire warning characteristics.•The excellent photothermal conversion of MXene greatly improves the antibacterial properties of bamboo. The application of bamboo to assist carbon neutral strategy has attracted worldwide attention due to its naturally carbon-negative property. However, the inherent defects of flammable and mildewed make bamboo encounter a bottleneck in its application. Hence, an intelligent bamboo (IB) with integrated performances of stable connection, high-temperature resistance, reliable fire warning and splendid photothermal sterilization properties was constructed via low-temperature evaporation induced self-assembly strategy. The hydrogen bonding, coordination complexes, van der Waals forces, and electrostatic forces can be formed between Ti3C2Tx (MXene) and pre-treated bamboo substrate (TB). The optimized bamboo-based fire alarm sensor (AM@TB) exhibits significant improvement in flame retardant properties, e.g., the limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of AM@TB8-2 was 61.4%, surpassing TB by an impressive margin of 65.8% and the vertical burning test reach the UL94 V-0 rating. Besides the PHRR (heat release rate) of AM@TB8-2 was decreased 80.3% compared to TB. The residual mass of AM@TB8-2 is 34.5%, which is 1.6 times higher than TB. Additionally, the AM@TB8-2 presents a sensitive fire warning response (∼2 s) and reliable repeatability. Furthermore, based on the outstanding photothermal conversion performance of MXene, AM@TB8-2 demonstrates predominant sterilization efficacy after a near-infrared laser (NIRL) illumination. Therefore, this work provides inspiration for the design and fabrication of high-performance IB that combine fire safety and antimicrobial properties.