Three-Dimensional Printable, Highly Conductive Ionic Elastomers for High-Sensitivity Iontronics

The development of hydrogels and ionic gels for applications in fields such as soft electronics and wearable sensors is limited by liquid evaporation or leakage. Ionic conductors without volatile liquids are better choices for flexible and transparent devices. Here, a liquid polymer electrolyte (LPE...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS applied materials & interfaces 2022-06, Vol.14 (22), p.26068-26076
Main Authors: Li, Qingning, Liu, Ziyang, Zheng, Sijie, Li, Weizheng, Ren, Yongyuan, Li, Lingling, Yan, Feng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applications of Polymer, Composite, and Coating Materials
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Summary:The development of hydrogels and ionic gels for applications in fields such as soft electronics and wearable sensors is limited by liquid evaporation or leakage. Ionic conductors without volatile liquids are better choices for flexible and transparent devices. Here, a liquid polymer electrolyte (LPE) is prepared from a mixture of lithium bis­(trifluoromethane)­sulfonimide and polyethylene glycol (PEG) above the melting point of PEG. A three-dimensional (3D) printable solvent-free ionic elastomer (IE) is introduced by photopolymerization of ethyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl acrylate in the prepared LPE. The conductivity is significantly improved by the presence of a high content of the lithium salt. Dynamic cross-linking networks improve the stretchability and resilience of the elastomer. The pattern design capability of the IE is provided by light-curing 3D printing. These features demonstrate that the IE has broad application prospects in flexible sensors, ion skins, and soft robots.
ISSN:1944-8244
1944-8252
DOI:10.1021/acsami.2c06682