Conductive hydrogels have become one of the most promising materials for skin-like sensors because of their excellent biocompatibility and mechanical flexibility. However, the limited stretchability, low toughness, and fatigue resistance lead to a narrow sensing region and insufficient durability of the hydrogelbased sensors. In this work, an extremely stretchable, highly tough, and anti-fatigue conductive nanocomposite hydrogel is prepared by integrating hydrophobic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into hydrophobically associated polyacrylamide (HAPAAm) hydrogel. In this conductive hydrogel, amphiphilic sodium dodecyl sulfate was used to ensure uniform dispersion of CNTs in the hydrogel network, and hydrophobic interactions between the hydrogel matrix and the CNT surface formed, greatly improving the mechanical properties of the hydrogel. The obtained CNTs/HAPAAm hydrogel showed excellent stretchability (ca. 3000%), toughness (3.42 MJ m −3 ), and great anti-fatigue property. Moreover, it exhibits both high tensile strain sensitivity in the wide strain ranges (gauge factor = 4.32, up to 1000%) and high linear sensitivity (0.127 kPa −1 ) in a large-pressure region within 0−50 kPa. The CNTs/HAPAAm hydrogelbased sensors can sensitively and stably detect full-range human activities (e.g., elbow rotation, finger bending, swallowing motion, and pronouncing) and handwriting, demonstrating the CNTs/HAPAAm hydrogel's potential as the wearable strain and pressure sensors for flexible devices.
Hydrogels based on supramolecular noncovalent interactions have attracted great research interest but are still limited by relatively low mechanical strength and performance deterioration at subzero temperatures because of the formation of ice crystallization. In this study, an antifreezing and mechanically strong gelatin supramolecular organohydrogel is prepared via a simple strategy of immersing a gelatin pre-hydrogel in the citrate (Cit) water/glycerol mixture solution. In the organohydrogel, a part of water molecules are replaced by glycerol, which inhibits the formation of ice crystallization even at extremely low temperature. In addition, the formation of noncovalent interactions such as the hydrophobic aggregation induced by the salting-out effect, ionic interactions between the −NH 3 + of gelatin and Cit 3− anions, and hydrogen bonding between gelatin chains and glycerol endows the organohydrogels with high mechanical strength and toughness. The supramolecular organohydrogel can maintain its mechanical flexibility even at −80 °C or be stored for a long time. Moreover, the nature of noncovalent interactions endows the organohydrogel with intriguing thermoplasticity, good healable ability, and excellent adhesive behavior at various substrate surfaces.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.