Preparation of a natural deep eutectic solvent mediated self polymerized highly flexible transparent gel having super capacitive behaviour

Abstract

A novel natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) was prepared by the endothermic complexation of choline chloride (hydrogen bond acceptor) and orcinol (hydrogen bond donor) at room temperature. Among N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM), vinyl acetate (VA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), only HEMA was found to self-polymerized in the above NADES at room temperature at optimized concentrations, resulting in the formation of a highly stretchable gel (>30 times). Polymerization of HEMA in the DES was established and rheological investigations revealed the highly stretchable behaviour of the gels. The gels obtained with HEMA in the ratio of 0.35, 0.5 and 1% v/v with respect to the NADES demonstrated good capacitive behaviour with metal oxide frame works (>200 F g⁻¹).