Peptidoglycan-inspired autonomous ultrafast self-healing bio-friendly elastomers for bio-integrated electronics

Elastomers are essential for stretchable electronics, which have become more and more important in bio-integrated devices. To ensure high compliance with the application environment, elastomers are expected to resist, and even self-repair, mechanical damage, while being friendly to the human body. Herein, inspired by peptidoglycan, we designed the first room-temperature autonomous self-healing biodegradable and biocompatible elastomers, poly(sebacoyl 1,6-hexamethylenedicarbamate diglyceride) (PSeHCD) elastomers. The unique structure including alternating ester-urethane moieties and bionic hybrid crosslinking endowed PSeHCD elastomers superior properties including ultrafast self-healing, tunable biomimetic mechanical properties, facile reprocessability, as well as good biocompatibility and biodegradability. The potential of the PSeHCD elastomers was demonstrated as a super-fast self-healing stretchable conductor (21 s) and motion sensor (2 min). This work provides a new design and synthetic principle of elastomers for applications in bio-integrated electronics.

Automated summary

Inspired by peptidoglycan, the first room-temperature autonomous self-healing biodegradable and biocompatible elastomers, PSeHCD, were designed with unique properties including ultrafast self-healing, tunable biomimetic mechanical properties, and good biocompatibility. The potential of PSeHCD elastomers was demonstrated as a super-fast self-healing stretchable conductor and motion sensor in bio-integrated electronics applications.