A Fully Self‐Healing and Highly Stretchable Liquid‐Free Ionic Conductive Elastomer for Soft Ionotronics

Abstract

Soft ionic conductors hold great potential for soft ionotronics, such as ionic skin, human–machine interface and soft luminescent device. However, most hydrogel and ionogel‐based soft ionic conductors suffer from freezing, evaporation and liquid leakage problems, which limit their use in complex environments. Herein, a class of liquid‐free ionic conductive elastomers (ICEs) is reported as an alternative soft ionic conductor in soft ionotronics. These liquid‐free ICEs offer a combination of desirable properties, including extraordinary stretchability (up to 1913%), toughness (up to 1.08 MJ cm−3), Young's modulus (up to 0.67 MPa), rapid fully self‐healing capability at room temperature, and good conductivity (up to 1.01 × 10−5 S cm−1). The application of these ICEs is demonstrated by creating a wearable sensor that can detect and discriminate minimal deformations and human body movements, such as finger or elbow joint flexion, walking, running, etc. In addition, self‐healing soft ionotronic devices are demonstrated to confront mechanical breakdown, such as an ionic skin and an alternating‐current electroluminescent device that can reuse from damage. It is believed that these liquid‐free ICEs hold great promises for applications in wearable devices and soft ionotronics.

Solid-state, liquid-free ion-conducting elastomers: rising-star platforms for flexible intelligent devices

“…Moreover, the efficient self-healing ability provides an effective route to develop patterned arrays of EL device in a Lego manner, such as a flower, a Christmas tree, or logos. 176 Remarkably, the luminance of the PEO/LiTFSI-based EL device was much higher than that of the hydrogel-based device, although hydrogels have higher ionic conductivity. 36 This is probably due to the better interfacial interactions between the electrodes and luminescent layer.…”

Low hysteresis zwitterionic supramolecular polymer ion-conductive elastomers with anti-freezing properties, high stretchability, and self-adhesion for flexible electronic devices

“…4H). 12,15,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] Adhesive properties of PCBUIA-LiCl elastomers Reliable self-adhesion is crucial for flexible electronic devices, which is conducive to capturing subtle changes more accurately and thus monitoring human activities with less electrical signal loss. The PCBUIA elastomers could adhere to various substrates without detachment and bear the weight of different substrates without peeling off, such as glass, stainless steel, rubber, wood, aluminum plate, and PTFE (Fig.…”

High‐Toughness and High‐Strength Solvent‐Free Linear Poly(ionic liquid) Elastomers

“…The above results demonstrate the successful synthesis of halometallate ILs and suggest that the addition of metal halides weakens the effect of halogen ions on imidazolium cations. [ 27–31 ] Therefore, the supramolecular networks within [BVIM][ZnxBry] are formed through the interactions between the coordination anions resulting from the coordination of metal halides with halogen ions and imidazolium cations. [ 32,33 ]…”