Wide‐Humidity Range Applicable, Anti‐Freezing, and Healable Zwitterionic Hydrogels for Ion‐Leakage‐Free Iontronic Sensors

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2023-06, Vol.35 (22), p.e2211617-n/a
• Main Authors: Zhao, Yiqian, Yang, Na, Chu, Xu, Sun, Fuchang, Ali, Muhammad Umair, Zhang, Yuan, Yang, Biao, Cai, Yulu, Liu, Manyu, Gasparini, Nicola, Zheng, Jiaxin, Zhang, Chaohong, Guo, Chuanfei, Meng, Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electronics; e‐skin; Freezing; Humidity; Hydrogels; ion‐leakage‐free; Leakage; Materials science; Mechanical properties; Moisture content; Relative humidity; self‐healing; Sensors; solketal; Substrates; wide‐humidity range applicable; zwitterionic hydrogel; Zwitterions
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202211617

Hydrogels have entered the spotlight for applications in soft electronics. It is essential and challenging to obtain hydrogels that can function properly under varying environmental circumstances, that is, 30–90% relative humidity (RH) and −20 to 40 °C due to their intrinsic nature to lose and absorb water upon variations in humidity and temperature. In this work, a green solvent, solketal, is introduced into poly 3‐dimethyl‐2‐(2‐methylprop‐2‐enoyloxy)ethyl azaniumyl propane‐1‐sulfonate (poly(DMAPS)) zwitterionic hydrogels. Compared to glycerol, solketal endows hydrogels with greater possibility for further modification as well as improved water content and mechanical performance consistency over 30–90% RH. Encouragingly, the optimized hydrogel demonstrates its unique merits as a dielectric layer in iontronic sensors, featuring non‐leaky ions, high sensitivity (1100 kPa−1), wide humidity, and temperature range applicability. A wide‐humidity range healable and stretchable electrode is attained by combining the hydrogel substrate with Ag paste. A full‐device healable and highly‐sensitive sensor is developed. This study is a pioneering work that tackles the broad humidity range applicability issue of hydrogels, and demonstrates the ion‐leakage‐free ionic skins with zwitterionic dielectrics. The outcomes of the study will considerably promote advancements in the fields of hydrogel electronics and iontronic sensors. Solketal, outperforming the commonly used solvent glycerol, endows healable zwitterionic hydrogels with wide‐humidity range applicability and freeze resistance. The optimized zwitterionic hydrogel satisfactorily serves as a dielectric layer to construct iontronic sensors with no ionic leakage, high sensitivity, and environmental stability. A whole‐body healable, stretchable, and highly‐sensitive sensor based on the zwitterionic hydrogels and composites is demonstrated.