Tough and Water‐Insensitive Self‐Healing Elastomer for Robust Electronic Skin

Abstract

An electronic (e-) skin is expected to experience significant wear and tear over time. Therefore, self-healing stretchable materials that are simultaneously soft and with high fracture energy, that is high tolerance of damage or small cracks without propagating, are essential requirements for the realization of robust e-skin. However, previously reported elastomers and especially self-healing polymers are mostly viscoelastic and lack high mechanical toughness. Here, a new class of polymeric material crosslinked through rationally designed multistrength hydrogen bonding interactions is reported. The resultant supramolecular network in polymer film realizes exceptional mechanical properties such as notch-insensitive high stretchability (1200%), high toughness of 12 000 J m , and autonomous self-healing even in artificial sweat. The tough self-healing materials enable the wafer-scale fabrication of robust and stretchable self-healing e-skin devices, which will provide new directions for future soft robotics and skin prosthetics.

Bio‐inspired Design and Additive Manufacturing of Soft Materials, Machines, Robots, and Haptic Interfaces

“…By exploiting noncovalent interactions,such as the strong and weak hydrogen bonds holding supramolecular networks together, Kang et al reported that elastomeric strain sensors based on polyurethane-urea can regain ah igh stretchability (g = 500 %) at room temperature after being cut in half (Figure 3e). [141] Hard tissues such as the skeletal bone in vertebrates have open-cell porous structures that house soft tissues and nervous systems.W henabone fracture happens,b oth the hard and the soft components are damaged. In the case of the hard matrix, as eries of cellular and humoral responses will remove debris,h old the bones stationary,a nd remodel the bone.…”

Simple Synthesis of Elastomeric Photomechanical Switches That Self‐Heal

“…Moreover, hydrogen bonds can also be established between bidentate urea motifs and monodentate urethane motifs . The strong hydrogen bonding yields elasticity that ensures full recovery from large strains, while the weak hydrogen bonding leads to energy dissipation after breaking and reforming …”

Self‐Healing, Adhesive, and Highly Stretchable Ionogel as a Strain Sensor for Extremely Large Deformation

“…Devices or strain sensors to provide such a large measure are scarce. More interestingly, enabling these devices with self‐healing soft materials can equip them with recovery and functional restoration after even severe damage, potentially prolonging the service life of these devices . Some self‐healing strain sensors based on rubber, polyurethane composite, and polyborosiloxane have been fabricated by introducing reversible bonds (e.g., hydrogen bond, disulfide bond, and dative bonds) to endow self‐healing capacity to the materials.…”