Issue 2, 2023

Unlimited recyclable wearable sensors based on a homogeneous ionic liquid and polyvinyl alcohol network

Abstract

Smart wearable electronics are now of great significance in the fields of biomedical applications and environmental sensors. The development of new devices will be a continuing pivotal hotspot for human beings in future. However, contamination caused by large quantities of traditional electronic waste has already done serious damage to the reputation, especially the unignorable and irreversible environmental pollution caused by the leakage of heavy metal ions and plastic microparticles. To address the issues mentioned above, we design recyclable, flexible and stretchable homogeneous wearable sensors, which are hydrogen bonding crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) conductive films, via applying ion-conductive 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([HMIM]+Br) ionic liquids, into a PVA polymer network by the freeze-thawing method. The application of [HMIM]+Br (Br-IL) can guarantee stable conductivity with no effect on the recyclability of the whole device. What's more, Br-IL also endows the PVA film with tuneable properties, such as enhancing the flexibility and stretchability of films which is a challenge for polymer-based electronics. Not only that, Br-IL also creates a bi-continuous ion conductive phase structure in the polymer network, which could be called a “swimming lane effect”. Experiments successfully prove that the PVA/Br-IL ion-conductive films can be used for strain/temperature/humidity sensing applications with perfect recyclability and reusability.

Graphical abstract: Unlimited recyclable wearable sensors based on a homogeneous ionic liquid and polyvinyl alcohol network

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Sept. 2022
Accepted
21 Dec. 2022
First published
10 Janv. 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Sustain., 2023,1, 261-269

Unlimited recyclable wearable sensors based on a homogeneous ionic liquid and polyvinyl alcohol network

Y. Huang, Y. Wang, X. Guan, B. Shi, X. Wang, X. Chen, A. Fernando and X. Liu, RSC Sustain., 2023, 1, 261 DOI: 10.1039/D2SU00040G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, 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 commercial 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