Efforts to impart responsiveness to environmental stimuli in artificial hydrogel fibers are crucial to intelligent, shape-memory electronics and weavable soft robots. However, owing to the vulnerable mechanical property, poor processability, and the dearth of scalable assembly protocols, such functional hydrogel fibers are still far from practical usage. Herein, we demonstrate an approach toward the continuous fabrication of an electro-responsive hydrogel fiber by using the self-lubricated spinning (SLS) strategy. The polyelectrolyte inside the hydrogel fiber endows it with a fast electro-response property. After solvent exchange with triethylene glycol (TEG), the maximum tensile strength of the hydrogel fiber increases from 114 kPa to 5.6 MPa, far superior to those hydrogel fiber-based actuators reported previously. Consequently, the flexible and mechanical stable hydrogel fiber is knitted into various complex geometries on demand such as a crochet flower, triple knot, thread tube, pentagram, and hollow cage. Additionally, the electrochemical-responsive ionic hydrogel fiber is capable of acting as soft robots underwater to mimic biological motions, such as Mobula-like flapping, jellyfish-mimicking grabbing, sea worm-mimicking multi-degree of freedom movements, and human finger-like smart gesturing. This work not only demonstrates an example for the large-scale production of previous infeasible hydrogel fibers, but also provides a solution for the rational design and fabrication of hydrogel woven intelligent devices.
Organic electroactive materials take advantage of potentially sustainable production and structural tunability compared to present commercial inorganic materials. Unfortunately, traditional redox flow batteries based on toxic redox‐active metal ions have certain deficiencies in resource utilization and environmental protection. In comparison, organic electroactive materials in aqueous redox flow batteries (ARFBs) have received extensive attention in recent years for low‐cost and sustainable energy storage systems due to their inherent safety. This review aims to provide the recent progress in organic electroactive materials for ARFBs. The main reaction types of organic electroactive materials are classified in ARFBs to provide an overview of how to regulate their solubility, potential, stability, and viscosity. Then, the organic anolyte and catholyte in ARFBs are summarized according to the types of quinones, viologens, nitroxide radicals, hydroquinones, etc, and how to increase the solubility by designing various functional groups is emphasized. The research advances are presented next in the characterization of organic electroactive materials for ARFBs. Future efforts are finally suggested to focus on building neutral ARFBs, designing advanced electroactive materials through molecular engineering, and resolving problems of commercial applications.
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