Issue 8, 2019

Smart strain sensing organic–inorganic hybrid hydrogels with nano barium ferrite as the cross-linker

Abstract

Regarding artificial intelligence and wearable soft electronics, increasing attention has been dedicated to hydrogel strain sensors. However, traditional hydrogels are insulating and fragile. To obtain a continuous and repeatable electrical signal output upon external stress or strain in a hydrogel, the combination of good mechanical property, good elasticity and high electrical conductivity is demanded. In order to apply hydrogel in the strain sensing field, in this work, a smart, flexible organic–inorganic polyanion polyacrylic acid (PAA) hybrid hydrogel is designed with nano barium ferrite (BaFe12O19) as a cross-linker without the addition of any chemically covalent or ionic cross-linkers, exhibiting a high ionic conductivity of 1.22 × 10−2 S cm−1. Due to high porosity as confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), the BaFe12O19/PAA hybrid hydrogel demonstrates 100% recoverability and stable piezoresistive sensing performance with negligible hysteresis loops under cyclic compression loading tests compared with the N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide chemically cross-linked PAA hydrogel. This demonstrates that the BaFe12O19/PAA hydrogel is not only favorable to be used as a candidate for strain sensors in soft electronics but also facilitates the evolution of a new generation of flexible, wearable, and human-friendly intelligent devices.

Graphical abstract: Smart strain sensing organic–inorganic hybrid hydrogels with nano barium ferrite as the cross-linker

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Okt 2018
Accepted
18 Jan 2019
First published
18 Jan 2019

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2019,7, 2353-2360

Smart strain sensing organic–inorganic hybrid hydrogels with nano barium ferrite as the cross-linker

H. Gu, H. Zhang, C. Ma, H. Sun, C. Liu, K. Dai, J. Zhang, R. Wei, T. Ding and Z. Guo, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2019, 7, 2353 DOI: 10.1039/C8TC05448G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements