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 sep 2022
Accepted
21 des 2022
First published
10 jan 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

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