Polarity-Selective Assembly Enables Tough and Stretchable Ionogels for Wearable Electronics

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Ionics

Background:

• Stretchable ionogels are crucial for soft iontronics but face challenges balancing mechanical robustness and ionic conductivity.
• Current methods often involve complex designs and multi-step processing, limiting scalability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a facile and scalable strategy for producing ionogels with enhanced mechanical properties and ionic conductivity.
• To overcome the inherent trade-off between toughness and conductivity in ionogels for advanced applications.

Main Methods:

• A solvent-evaporation-induced phase-separation strategy was employed.
• Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and poly(styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene) (SEBS) were rationally paired to create a bicontinuous architecture.
• Ionic species were selectively partitioned into TPU-rich phases for ion transport.

Main Results:

• The developed ionogels exhibit superior toughness (86.1 MJ m⁻³) and high stretchability (>1500%).
• Achieved ionic conductivity of 1.97 × 10⁻² S m⁻¹ without compromising mechanical integrity.
• Demonstrated reliable performance in multimodal ionic skins and wearable supercapacitors.

Conclusions:

• The phase-separation strategy offers a generalizable approach for fabricating high-performance ionogels.
• This method facilitates the development of next-generation soft and wearable iontronic devices.
• The resulting ionogels show promise for applications requiring simultaneous mechanical resilience and efficient ion transport.