With the development
of artificial intelligence,
people are not satisfied with the traditional conductive materials
and tend to focus on stretchable and flexible electronic systems.
Flexible conductive rubbers have great potential applications in wearable
strain sensors. However, the rapid propagation of bacteria during
the use of wearable sensors may be an ineluctable threat to humans’
health. Herein, a conductive rubber film is fabricated based on carboxylic
styrene–butadiene rubber (XSBR), citric acid (CA), and silver
nitrate (AgNO3) via a convenient approach,
where Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are in situ reduced
without sintering at elevated temperatures. The resultant films exhibit
many desirable and impressive features, such as strengthened mechanical
properties, flexibility, and conductivity. More importantly, the Ag
NP flexible conductive films exhibit excellent antibacterial activity
against Escherichia coli (Gram-negative
bacteria) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive bacteria), which have potential applications as flexible
antibacterial materials to monitor movements of the human body in
real time. Also, because of the hygroscopicity of CA, the resistance
of our conductive film is sensitive to various humidities, which can
be applied in the humidity sensor.