Antibacterial, Antifreezing, and Tough Electronic Skin Based on a Tanned Collagen Fiber Network for Underwater...

The environment of underwater salvage is very special, and many factors such as real-time water conditions, the depth of salvage, and the complexity of underwater conditions could greatly affect the smooth progress of the salvage process. How to accurately judge the type of underwater salvaging item is an important topic in improving the efficiency of underwater operations. Herein, following the "top-down" strategy, a leather-based conductive electronic skin (e-skin) PLZAG was designed and constructed by using the collagen fiber network of zirconium-tanned leather. The resulting PLZAG e-skin exhibited high toughness, high modulus, and high sensitivity. It showed 65% of the maximum fracture strain and 12.28 MPa of the maximum tensile strength and excellent strain sensitivity (gauge factor = 2.5), and it could perform well in a variety of extreme environments. The underwater grabber, constructed from this e-skin, could recognize the flow conditions in underwater environments. Through the conversion of electrical signals to digital signals, it can provide real-time reflection of river and marine environments, offering early warning for underwater operations. Additionally, the underwater anchor demonstrated excellent recovery capability and recognition accuracy, enabling it to provide corresponding feedback on the morphology and size of underwater objects, thereby offering a reference for the shape of unknown objects. In short, as a kind of intelligent sensing material, the leather-based conductive PLZAG e-skin featured the characteristics of intelligence, multifunctionality, and automation and has significant application potential in many fields such as artificial intelligence and human-machine interface.