Human-tissue-inspired anti-fatigue-fracture hydrogel for a sensitive wide-range human–machine interface

Abstract

The emerging applications of hydrogels in flexible electronics require hydrogels to possess excellent anti-fatigue fracture and self-healing properties; this remains an important unmet scientific challenge. Herein, inspired by human tissues, an effective and simple strategy is proposed to prepare a multifunctional hydrogel that shows ultra-stretchable (>2900%), anti-fatigue-fracture, and self-healable properties. Moreover, the hydrogel exhibits high sensitivity in a wide strain window when used as a strain sensor. More importantly, benefiting from the self-healing and anti-fatigue-fracture properties, the sensing properties of the hydrogel are fully restored after a cutting-and-healing process and it keeps working for a very long time (>20 000 cycles) even after being severely damaged. This hydrogel shows great potential for future artificial intelligence and human–machine interface applications.