Soft Thermoplastic Polyurethane/Silver Nanowire Membranes with Low Hysteresis for Large Strain Sensing and Joule Heating
Chunfa Ye, Tianyu Cang, Jixiang Zhu, Zuhang Wang, Xiaoyan Li
Abstract
Multifunctional flexible electronic membranes are popular in wearable electronics. This paper presents a conductive composite membrane fabricated by electrospinning thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) and amphiphilic triblock copolymer, followed by in situ dopamine self-polymerization and silver nanowire (AgNWs) loading. This careful interfacial design results in a soft, stretchable, and low-hysteresis multifunctional electronic membrane. The prepared composite membrane exhibits excellent interfacial transfer, showing a hysteresis loss factor increase of less than 15% compared to the pristine TPU after 100 cycles at 100% strain. This soft and breathable conductive membrane demonstrates exceptional large-strain sensing performance, characterized by a fast response time (<400 ms), wide sensing range (up to 200%), good cycling stability, and durability. The conductive membrane can rapidly heat up from room temperature to over 80 °C under a low voltage of 3.0 V, exhibiting a good linear relationship between Joule heating and strain. This low-hysteresis conductive membrane, based on hierarchical viscoelastic transfer, will contribute to the advancement of electronic devices integrating large-strain sensing and thermal management.