Issue 41, 2018

Highly stretchable and fatigue resistant hydrogels with low Young's modulus as transparent and flexible strain sensors

Abstract

It can be envisaged that in the future, wearable electronics will be skin-like and “unfeelable”. High stretchability (strain > 100%), skin-like Young's modulus (<25 kPa), and high conductivity under a highly stretchable state are desired for advancing electronics. In this study, a novel waterborne hexamethylene diisocyanate trimer (WHDT) and N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (MBAA) were used as synergic crosslinkers to prepare conductive hydrogels. These hydrogels were cut resistant and highly stretchable (strain > 900%). The hydrogels could withstand over 15 000 cycles of 200% stretching–releasing at high speed. The Young's modulus was about 8 kPa. The strain sensitivity of these “skin-like” hydrogels confirmed that the relative change in electric resistance increased to 700% with 400% stretching, showing good exponential fitting with 0.9997 of R-square. Furthermore, the strain sensor could maintain high transparency with transmittance of 87%. These combined important features make these hydrogels potentially useful for transparent strain sensors, skin-mountable electrics, and flexible conductors in the fields of artificial skins and stretchable electronics.

Graphical abstract: Highly stretchable and fatigue resistant hydrogels with low Young's modulus as transparent and flexible strain sensors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 May 2018
Accepted
21 Sep 2018
First published
21 Sep 2018

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018,6, 11193-11201

Highly stretchable and fatigue resistant hydrogels with low Young's modulus as transparent and flexible strain sensors

R. Chen, X. Xu, D. Yu, C. Xiao, M. Liu, J. Huang, T. Mao, C. Zheng, Z. Wang and X. Wu, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018, 6, 11193 DOI: 10.1039/C8TC02583E

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