Highly Transparent, Stretchable, and Self-Healable Ionogel for Multifunctional Sensors, Triboelectric Nanogenerator, and Wearable Fibrous Electronics

Ionogels with high transparency, stretchability and self-healing capability show great potential for wearable electronics. Here, a kind of highly transparent, stretchable and self-healable ionogels are designed using double physical cross-linking including hydrogen bonding and dipole-dipole interaction. Owing to the dynamic and reversible nature of the ion-dipole interaction and hydrogen bonds of polymeric chains, the ionogel possesses good self-healing capability. The multifunctional sensors for strain and temperature are fabricated based on ionogel. The ionogel can serve as strain sensor that exhibited high sensitivity [gauge factor (GF) = 3.06] and durability (1000 cycles) to a wide range of strains (0-300%). Meanwhile, the ionogel shows rapid response to temperature, due to the temperature dependence of its ionic conductivity. Furthermore, the ionogel fibers with excellent antifreezing (- 20 degrees C) capability are fabricated, and the fibers show the good sensing performance to human motions and temperature. Importantly, the antifreezing ionogel-based triboelectric nanogenerator (ITENG) is assembled for efficient energy harvesting. The ITENG shows a short circuit current (I-SC) of 6.1 mu A, open circuit voltage (V-OC) of 115 V, and instantaneous peak power density of 334 mW m(-2). This work provides a new strategy to design ionogels for the advancement of wearable electronics.

Automated summary

Ionogels with high transparency, stretchability, and self-healing capability have shown great potential for wearable electronics. By utilizing double physical cross-linking involving hydrogen bonding and dipole-dipole interaction, these ionogels exhibit excellent self-healing properties. They have been utilized to fabricate multifunctional sensors for strain and temperature, as well as antifreezing ionogel fibers with good sensing performance. Furthermore, an antifreezing ionogel-based triboelectric nanogenerator (ITENG) has been developed for efficient energy harvesting, showing promising results in terms of current, voltage, and power density. This research offers a new strategy for designing ionogels to advance wearable electronics.