Mussel-Inspired Wet-Adhesive Multifunctional Organohydrogel with Extreme Environmental Tolerance for Wearable Strain Sensor
Zhenling Shang, Guoqiang Liu, Yue Sun, Chenghao Li, Nan Zhao, Zhuo Chen, Ruisheng Guo, Zijian Zheng, Feng Zhou, Weimin Liu
Abstract
As a flexible artificial material, the conductive hydrogel has broad application prospects in flexible wearable electronics, soft robotics, and biomedical monitoring. However, traditional hydrogels still face many challenges, such as long-term stability, availability in extreme environments, and long-lasting adhesion to the skin surface under sweaty or humid conditions. To circumvent the above issues, one kind of ionic conductive hydrogel was prepared by a simple one-pot method that dissolved chitosan (CS), 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS), tannic acid (TA), and 2-methoxy-ethyl acrylate (MEA) into dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/H 2 O solvent. The resulting hydrogel showed excellent tensile properties (1440%), extreme environmental tolerance (−40–60 °C), adhesion (72 KPa at porcine skin), ionic conductivity (0.87 S m –1 ), and high-efficiency antibacterial property. Furthermore, the produced organohydrogel strain sensor exhibited high strain sensitivity (GF = 4.07), excellent signal sensing capabilities (human joint movement, microexpression, and sound signals), and long-term cyclic stability (400 cycles). Looking beyond, this work provides a simple and promising strategy for using hydrogel sensors in extreme environments for e-skin, health monitoring, and wearable electronic devices.