Tough and self‐healable substrates can enable stretchable electronics long service life. However, for substrates, it still remains a challenge to achieve both high toughness and autonomous self‐healing ability at room temperature. Herein, a strategy by using the combined effects between quadruple H‐bonding and slidable cross‐links is proposed to solve the above issues in the elastomer. The elastomer exhibits high toughness (77.3 MJ m−3), fracture energy (≈127.2 kJ m−2), and good healing efficiency (91 %) at room temperature. The superior performance is ascribed to the inter and intra crosslinking structures of quadruple H‐bonding and polyrotaxanes in the dual crosslinking system. Strain‐induced crystallization of PEG in polyrotaxanes also contributes to the high fracture energy of the elastomers. Furthermore, based on the dual cross‐linked supramolecular elastomer, a highly stretchable and self‐healable electrode containing liquid metal is also fabricated, retaining resistance stability (0.16–0.26 Ω) even at the strain of 1600 %.
The demand for stretchable electronics with a broader working range is increasing for wide application in wearable sensors and e‐skin. However, stretchable conductors based on soft elastomers always exhibit low working range due to the inhomogeneous breakage of the conductive network when stretched. Here, a highly stretchable and self‐healable conductor is reported by adopting polyrotaxane and disulfide bonds into the binding layer. The binding layer (PR‐SS) builds the bridge between polymer substrates (PU‐SS) and silver nanowires (AgNWs). The incorporation of sliding molecules endows the stretchable conductor with a long sensing range (190%) due to the energy dissipation derived from the sliding nature of polyrotaxanes, which is two times higher than the working range (93%) of conductors based on AP‐SS without polyrotaxanes. Furthermore, the mechanism of sliding effect for the polyrotaxanes in the elastomers is investigated by SEM for morphological change of AgNWs, in situ small‐angle x‐ray scattering, as well as stress relaxation experiments. Finally, human‐body‐related sensing tests and a self‐correction system in fitness are designed and demonstrated.
Ionic conductive soft materials for mimicking human skin are a promising topic since they can be thought of as a possible basis for biomimetic sensing. In pursuit of devices with a long working range and low signal delay, conductive materials with low hysteresis and good stretchability are highly demanded. To overcome the challenges of highly stretchable conductive materials with good resilience, herein a chemical design is proposed where polyrotaxanes act as topological cross-linkers to enhance the stretchability by sliding-induced reduced stress concentration while the compatible ionic liquid is introduced as a dispersant for low hysteresis. The obtained ionogels exhibit versatile properties more than low hysteresis (residual strain = 7%) and good stretchability (550%), and also anti-fatigue, biocompatibility, and good adhesion. The low hysteresis is attributed to lower energy dissipation from the well-dispersed polyrotaxanes by compatible ionic liquids. The mechanism provides a new insight in fabricating highly stretchable and low-hysteresis slide-ring materials. Furthermore, the conductivity of the ionogels and their responses to strains and temperatures are measured. Benefiting from the good conductivity and low hysteresis, the ionogel is applied to develop a wireless communication system to realize rapid human-machine interactions.
Tough and self‐healable substrates can enable stretchable electronics long service life. However, for substrates, it still remains a challenge to achieve both high toughness and autonomous self‐healing ability at room temperature. Herein, a strategy by using the combined effects between quadruple H‐bonding and slidable cross‐links is proposed to solve the above issues in the elastomer. The elastomer exhibits high toughness (77.3 MJ m−3), fracture energy (≈127.2 kJ m−2), and good healing efficiency (91 %) at room temperature. The superior performance is ascribed to the inter and intra crosslinking structures of quadruple H‐bonding and polyrotaxanes in the dual crosslinking system. Strain‐induced crystallization of PEG in polyrotaxanes also contributes to the high fracture energy of the elastomers. Furthermore, based on the dual cross‐linked supramolecular elastomer, a highly stretchable and self‐healable electrode containing liquid metal is also fabricated, retaining resistance stability (0.16–0.26 Ω) even at the strain of 1600 %.
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