Highly Transparent, Underwater Self-Healing, and Ionic Conductive Elastomer Based on Multivalent Ion-Dipole Interactions

Ionic conductors that combine transparency, elasticity, and underwater self-healing capability are highly desirable because of their applications in biosensors, touch panels, marine ships, and so forth. Polymer materials based on ion-dipole interactions can meet these requirements. However, a key trade-off is their relatively weak mechanical properties because of the plasticizing effect. Here, we designed and synthesized a new ionic liquid building block to enable a new design of multivalent ion-dipole interaction. The resultant ion-dipole polymer complex not only enhances the Young's modulus by more than 3 times but also possesses much better elasticity, without any sacrifice on the ionic conductivity or self-healing capability.