Strong, Antifatigue, and Ionically Conductive Organogels for High-Performance Strain Sensors
Yuqing Wang, Yongchuan Wu, Yuntao Liu, Haidi Wu, Wei Xiao, Hechuan Zhang, Xuewu Huang, Jin Zhang, Huaiguo Xue, Jiefeng Gao
Abstract
Conductive organohydrogels with flexibility and biocompatibility have attracted extensive attention in bioelectronic devices. However, poor mechanical properties and crack propagation resistance have severely limited their applications. Herein, strong, tough, and ionically conductive organogels (ICOs) with outstanding fatigue resistance are prepared based on simultaneous construction of dense cross-linked polymer network with numerous crystalline domains and ionically conductive network during the solvent exchange. ICOs show excellent mechanical properties with tensile strength and elongation at break as high as 16.7 ± 0.9 MPa and 1112.4 ± 120.3%, respectively. Moreover, the fracture energy and fatigue threshold can reach 34.0 ± 4.7 KJ/m 2 and 561.3 ± 59.6 J/m 2, respectively, exhibiting outstanding crack resistant properties. ICOs with antifreezing performance are used for strain sensing with a linear working strain up to 80% and superior cycling stability, and the ICO strain sensor can monitor various body motions. The mechanically strong and antifatigue organogels show promising applications in flexible and smart electronics even in extreme environments.