Facile Soaking Strategy Toward Simultaneously Enhanced Conductivity and Toughness of Self-Healing Composite Hydrogels Through Constructing Multiple Noncovalent Interactions

Tough and stretchable conductive hydrogels are desirable for the emerging field of wearable and implanted electronics. Unfortunately, most existing conductive hydrogels have low mechanical strength. Current strategies to enhance mechanical properties include employing tough host gel matrices or introducing specific interaction between conductive polymer and host gel matrices. However, these strategies often involve additional complicated processes. Here, a simple yet effective soaking treatment is employed to concurrently enhance mechanical and conductive properties, both of which can be facilely tailored by controlling the soaking duration. The significant improvements are correlated with co-occurring mechanism of deswelling and multiple noncovalent interactions. The resulting optimal sample exhibits attractive combination of high water content (75 wt %), high tensile stress (similar to 1.5 MPa), large elongation (>600%), reasonable conductivity (similar to 25 mS/cm), and fast self-healing property with the aid of hot water. The potential application of gel as a strain sensor is demonstrated. The applicability of this method is not limited to conductive hydrogels alone but can also be extended to strengthen other functional hydrogels with weak mechanical properties.