Highly Stretchable, Self-Healing, and Low Temperature Resistant Double Network Hydrogel Ionic Conductor as Flexible...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Polymer Science

Background:

• Conductive hydrogels are crucial for flexible energy storage and wearable strain sensing.
• Their flexibility and wetting properties make them ideal electrolytes.
• Developing robust hydrogels for extreme conditions is an ongoing challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and prepare novel antifreeze hydrogels with enhanced stretchability, adhesion, and conductivity.
• To evaluate the hydrogels' performance as quasi-solid electrolytes in supercapacitors.
• To assess the hydrogels' capability as wearable strain sensors.

Main Methods:

• Incorporation of phosphoric acid solutions into polyacrylamide and chitosan systems.
• Fabrication of multifunctional hydrogel samples.
• Electrochemical testing of hydrogel-based supercapacitors at -30°C.
• Performance evaluation as flexible strain sensors.

Main Results:

• The hydrogel exhibited high stretchability, adhesion, and conductivity.
• Supercapacitors achieved 99.67% charge/discharge efficiency and 98.85% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles at -30°C.
• The hydrogel successfully detected subtle heartbeat waveforms as a strain sensor.

Conclusions:

• The developed polyacrylamide-chitosan-phosphoric acid (PCP) hydrogel is a promising multifunctional material.
• It offers excellent performance for flexible sensors and energy storage devices across a range of temperatures.
• This work paves the way for next-generation flexible electronics.