Conductive Hydrogels as Smart Materials for Flexible Electronic Devices

Flexible conductive materials have gained considerable research interest in recent years because of their potential applications in flexible energy storage devices, sensors, touch panels, electronic skins, etc. With excellent flexibility, outstanding electric properties and tunable mechanical properties, conductive hydrogels as conductive materials offer plentiful insights and opportunities for flexible electronic devices. Numerous synthetic strategies have been developed to obtain various conductive hydrogels, and high-performance flexible electronic devices based on these conductive hydrogels have been realized. This review provides a comprehensive overview of conductive-hydrogel-based flexible electronics, ranging from conductive hydrogels synthesis to several important flexible devices applications, including touch panels, sensors and energy storage. Finally, we provide new future research directions and perspectives for conductive-hydrogel-based flexible and portable electronic devices.