Highly Stretchable PU Ionogels with Self-Healing Capability for a Flexible Thermoelectric Generator

Abstract

With the development of thermoelectric (TE) generator, the flexible, stretchable, self-healable, and wearable TE devices have aroused great interest. Therefore, we designed a self-healable and stretchable polyurethane (PU) ionogel, composed of polyurethane main chains with double bonds in the side, cross-linkers (BDB) and nonconjugated ionic liquids (EMIM:DCA). The PU ionogels with 30 wt % ILs have a high mechanical stretchability (300%), good tensile strength (1.61 MPa), and suitable Young’s modulus (0.79 MPa). The proposed materials also exhibited an excellent ionic figure of merit (ZT i) of 0.99 ± 0.3, as well as rapid self-healability in the absence of any external stimuli. The thermoelectric capability of PU ionogels kept stable under the severe condition (50% strain) and during self-healing process, which is rarely reported in recent studies. Furthermore, a stretchable and self-healable ionic thermoelectric capacitor device is also fabricated by the PU ionogels, which can efficiently convert heat into electricity.

Quasi-solid conductive gels with high thermoelectric properties and high mechanical stretchability consisting of a low cost and green deep eutectic solvent

“…34 Xu et al investigated ionogels with self-healable and stretchable polyurethane (PU) as the gelator. 44 The ionogels can exhibit a ZT i of 0.99 ± 0.3 at a relative humidity of 70% and a mechanical stretchability of up to 300%. However, ILs can have problems like high cost and toxicity.…”

Light‐driven self‐healing castor oil based polyurethane film with enhanced mechanical properties

“…Over the duration of utilization of PUs, cracks often develop from the impact, scratch, and radiation that may lead to catastrophic security problems and cut the service life of PUs. Consequently, endowing PUs with versatile properties such as self‐healing ability suggests huge potential for new‐generation PUs 20–24 . In the past decade, intrinsic healing materials with the unique flexible properties of shape memory and self‐healing have drawn great attention among researchers, which are mainly based on dynamic covalently bonded crosslinking 25,26 .…”

“…Consequently, endowing PUs with versatile properties such as self-healing ability suggests huge potential for new-generation PUs. [20][21][22][23][24] In the past decade, intrinsic healing materials with the unique flexible properties of shape memory and self-healing have drawn great attention among researchers, which are mainly based on dynamic covalently bonded crosslinking. 25,26 However, there are only a small number of studies about self-healing vegetable oil-based polymers.…”

Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Filler Material on the Performance of Flexible and Rigid Thermoelectric Generators

“…Additionally, they have no gas emission, no vibration, and a long lifespan . Advances in material engineering have shown that silk fabric-based, , paper-based, , paint-based, , and self-healing , flexible TEGs (f-TEG) can be developed.…”