Highly Efficient and Water-Insensitive Self-Healing Elastomer for Wet and Underwater Electronics

Integrating self-healing capabilities into soft electronic devices increases their durability and long-term reliability. Although some advances have been made, the use of self-healing electronics in wet and/or (under)water environments has proven to be quite challenging, and has not yet been fully realized. Herein, a new highly water insensitive self-healing elastomer with high stretchability and mechanical strength that can reach 1100% and approximate to 6.5 MPa, respectively, is reported. The elastomer exhibits a high (>80%) self-healing efficiency (after approximate to 24 h) in high humidity and/or different (under)water conditions without the assistance of an external physical and/or chemical triggers. Soft electronic devices made from this elastomer are shown to be highly robust and able to recover their electrical properties after damages in both ambient and aqueous conditions. Moreover, once operated in extreme wet or underwater conditions (e.g., salty sea water), the self-healing capability leads to the elimination of significant electrical leakage that would be caused by structural damages. This highly efficient self-healing elastomer can help extend the use of soft electronics outside of the laboratory and allow a wide variety of wet and submarine applications.