Self-Healing and Antibacterial Essential Oil-Loaded Mesoporous Silica/Polyacrylate Hybrid Hydrogel for High-Performance Wearable Body-Strain Sensing

Abstract

Flexible electronics have aroused great interest over the past few years due to their unique advantages of being wearable and lightweight. Introducing the self-healing function into wearable electronics will contribute to the practical applications of wearable electronics by prolonging the devices’ lifetime. In this study, a flexible essential oil (EO)-loaded mesoporous silica (EO@AMS)/polyacrylate hybrid hydrogel with superb self-healing and antibacterial properties was prepared. The prepared hybrid hydrogel was found to have excellent piezoresistive sensing performance, which could be particularly suitable for human vital activity monitoring. Benefiting from the strong ionic bonding and multiple hydrogen bonds between polyacrylate and EO@AMS, the hybrid hydrogel could repair its damaged areas with restored sensing and mechanical properties, which suggested excellent self-healing ability. In addition, this hybrid hydrogel, when applied in wearable devices, was found to have high antibacterial ability owing to the slow release of the lemon EO from AMS to kill bacteria. This promising self-healing and antibacterial hybrid hydrogel shows a promising application in wearable electronics for posture monitoring, human–computer interaction, and artificial intelligence.

Bio-inspired color-changing and self-healing hybrid hydrogels for wearable sensors and adaptive camouflage

“…For instance, the skin of a chameleon is highly interesting and sensitive and capable of changing color for adaptation, self-protection, or safety warning by sensing external stimuli (e.g., temperature, sunlight, and pressure). [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Moreover, the skin of a chameleon has a selfhealing ability even after being injured. Accordingly, chameleon skin provides inspiration for effective fabrication of durable wearable sensors.…”

“…, temperature, sunlight, and pressure). 17–24 Moreover, the skin of a chameleon has a self-healing ability even after being injured. Accordingly, chameleon skin provides inspiration for effective fabrication of durable wearable sensors.…”

Cryopolymerized Polyampholyte Gel with Antidehydration, Self-Healing, and Shape-Memory Properties for Sustainable and Tunable Sensing Electronics

“…Apart from the problem of dehydration, hydrogels are susceptible to physical damage caused by an external force, particularly in load-bearing applications. In this case, self-healing has been proposed to prolong the working lifetime and performance of a hydrogel as well as the derived wearable sensing electronics. − From the view of chemistry, incorporating noncovalent bonds and reversible covalent bonds is the mainstream for developing self-healing hydrogels . Currently, noncovalent bonds for self-healing hydrogels are hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds, π–π stacking, metal-ion binding, and other dynamic interactions. , Chen and co-workers reported a kind of hydrogel-based strain sensor that was fabricated by dialdehyde 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl oxidized nanofibrillated cellulose (DATNFC) reinforced gelatin nanocomposite hydrogel (gelatin/DATNFC) which was finally dipped in Fe 3+ aqueous solution .…”

Interface Design of Head-Worn Display Application on Condition Monitoring in Aviation

“…New materials can also improve the user preference of wearable electronics such as HWDs. According to recent research, a self-healing multifunctional film can be applicated in HWDs, which can not only expand the device lifetime and reliability, but also bring antibacterial ability [ 33 , 34 ].…”