Salt-Adaptively Conductive Ionogel Sensor for Marine Sensing

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Sensor Technology
• Marine Engineering

Background:

• Hydrophobic ionogels are used in artificial electronic skins and wearable sensors.
• Salty seawater degrades the performance of conventional low-conductive ionogel sensors.
• Developing robust underwater sensors for marine environments is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a salt-adaptive ionogel with enhanced conductivity and high submarine strain sensitivity.
• To address the performance limitations of ionogel sensors in marine environments.
• To demonstrate the potential of the ionogel in underwater sensing applications.

Main Methods:

• Proton conduction mechanism was employed for preliminary conductivity improvement.
• Investigated salt-induced dissociation phenomenon for environmental salt-adaptive conductivity.
• Fabricated an ionogel-based sensor and evaluated its conductivity, stability, and strain sensing performance in seawater.
• Integrated the sensor with soft actuators for monitoring underwater activities.

Main Results:

• The ionogel exhibits a salt-adaptive conductivity feature, increasing with surrounding salinity.
• Achieved high conductivity of 2.90 × 10^-1 S m^-1 in seawater.
• Demonstrated prominent strain sensing performance with a gauge factor of 1.12.
• The sensor showed long-term underwater stability and adhesion.
• Successfully monitored human breath frequency, actions, and soft actuator locomotion.

Conclusions:

• The developed salt-adaptive ionogel overcomes the limitations of traditional sensors in saline environments.
• The ionogel-based sensor offers high performance for underwater strain sensing and monitoring.
• This technology holds significant potential for diving detection, soft robotics, and marine exploration.