Ultra-Stretchable and Fast Self-Healing Ionic Hydrogel in Cryogenic Environments for Artificial Nerve Fiber

Self-healing materials behave with irreplaceable advantages in biomimetic intelligent robots (BIR) for avoiding or reducing safety hazards and economic losses from accidental damage during service. However, the self-healing ability is unreservedly lost and even becomes rigid and fragile in the cryogenic environment where BIR are precisely needed. Here, the authors report a versatile ionic hydrogel with fast self-healing ability, ultra-stretchability, and stable conductivity, even at -80 degrees C. The hydrogel is systematically optimized to improve a hydrogen-bonded network nanostructure, coordinated achieving a quick self-healing ability within 10 min, large deformation tolerance of over 7000%, superior conductivity of 11.76 S cm(-1) and anti-freezing ability, which is difficult to obtain simultaneously. Such a hydrogel provides new opportunities for artificial electronic devices in harsh environments. As a prospective application, they fabricate an artificial nerve fiber by mimicking the structure and functions of the myelinated axon, exhibiting the property of fast and potential-gated signal transmission. This artificial nerve fiber is integrated into a robot for demonstrating a real-time high fidelity and high throughput information interaction under big deformation and cryogenic temperature. The hydrogel and bionic device will bring pioneering functions for robots and open a broad application scenario in extreme conditions.

Automated summary

Self-healing materials offer significant advantages in biomimetic intelligent robots by reducing safety hazards and economic losses caused by accidental damage. Researchers have developed a versatile ionic hydrogel with fast self-healing ability, ultra-stretchability, and stable conductivity, even in cryogenic environments. This hydrogel has been applied to create an artificial nerve fiber, demonstrating high fidelity and high throughput information interaction in extreme conditions.