The development of hydrogels and
ionic gels for applications in
fields such as soft electronics and wearable sensors is limited by
liquid evaporation or leakage. Ionic conductors without volatile liquids
are better choices for flexible and transparent devices. Here, a liquid
polymer electrolyte (LPE) is prepared from a mixture of lithium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide
and polyethylene glycol (PEG) above the melting point of PEG. A three-dimensional
(3D) printable solvent-free ionic elastomer (IE) is introduced by
photopolymerization of ethyl acrylate and hydroxyethyl acrylate in
the prepared LPE. The conductivity is significantly improved by the
presence of a high content of the lithium salt. Dynamic cross-linking
networks improve the stretchability and resilience of the elastomer.
The pattern design capability of the IE is provided by light-curing
3D printing. These features demonstrate that the IE has broad application
prospects in flexible sensors, ion skins, and soft robots.
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