Disulfide bond and Diels–Alder reaction bond hybrid polymers with high stretchability, transparency, recyclability, and intrinsic dual healability for skin-like tactile sensing

Abstract

For next-generation electronics, it is crucial to be able to accurately mimic the nature of human skin and develop skin-inspired materials and devices for electronic skin (e-skin) applications. However, it is a great challenge to design such a materials because they require the complex integration of stretchability, skin adhesiveness, transparency, healability, and tactile sensing. Herein, we present the first dual covalently reversible dynamic bond-based polymer that can be integrated with various functional materials and used as a skin-like sensor. A series of polymers was designed using polypropylene glycol (PPG)-based polyurethane (PU) as the polymer backbone, and these polymers could integrate two types of covalent reversible dynamic bonds, Diels–Alder and disulfide bonds, in one polymer for the first time. Based on our design, a polymer was created with the advantages of high stretchability, fast healing abilities (60 °C, 5 min), skin adhesion, recyclability, high transparency, and tactile sensing abilities. We provide an alternative strategy for the construction of skin-inspired multifunctional materials for e-skin applications.