Multifunctional zwitterionic hydrogel electrolyte based on sodium carboxymethylcellulose for 20% small tensile strain...

With the development of flexible wearable electronics and mobile energy systems toward dynamic integration, flexible energy devices demand mechanical-ionic conduction synergy from electrolytes. Traditional PVA-based electrolytes suffer from abrupt ionic conduction decline due to network fracture during stretching, restricting dynamic service stability. This study proposes a "multi-scale network regulation" hydrogel By integrating PVA physical and PAM chemical double networks for mechanical enhancement, through the introduction of sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMCNa), the hydrogen bond crosslinking density within the hydrogel network is enhanced, which significantly improves the comprehensive properties of the hydrogel. This ultimately achieves the synergistic decoupled regulation of mechanical properties and electrochemical properties, breaking through the traditional bottleneck of their mutual restriction and realizing the synergistic effect of these two types of core properties. The resulting hydrogel maintains 92% conductivity during 20% strain discharge, of 99 kPa tensile strength, 93 kPa adhesion, and 2.67 S*m^-1 ionic conductivity, showing stable performance under 45° bending or 20% stretching. Zn-ion batteries incorporating this hydrogel exhibit a voltage window of 0.2-1.6 V and still maintain a capacity retention of 85% after 600 cycles. This work provides a feasible strategy for stretchable batteries.