Flexible electronic devices to obtain accurate and efficient information interactions between humans and machines have gained increasing attention in recent years. A series of soft materials for flexible electronics have been developed to improve device performance in terms of electrical and mechanical properties. Among them, conductive polymer-based hydrogels (CPHs), which combine the tunable electronic properties of conductive polymers and the soft mechanical properties of hydrogels, are promising candidates for nextgeneration wearable electronic devices. This review summarized the material design and preparation of CPHs, and presented the properties of CPHs, including tunable conductivity, outstanding mechanical performance, biocompatibility, self-healing capability, resistance to freezing, and solution processability.In particular, their emerging applications in flexible electronics devices including flexible supercapacitors, flexible sensors, and biomedical electronics are highlighted. Furthermore, perspectives on existing challenges and opportunities in this field are discussed.

Nanogenerators have received much attention due to their potential applications in mechanical energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. Despite the fast development of nanogenerators, improving their performances via effective strategies still remains a great challenge. Herein, we report a ternary coupling effect of a triboelectric–piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator based on the nanoporous film of poly­(vinylidene fluoride)/BaTiO3 composite nanofibers prepared by electrospinning. The transfer charge density of the triboelectric–piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator in the optimal coupling state is 2.12 times that of the sum value of the pristine nanoporous piezoelectric and triboelectric nanogenerators as references, which can reach up to 105.6 μC m–2. Enhanced performances of the hybrid nanogenerator are attributed to the improved synergistic coupling for triple effects of pore dipole, triboelectricity, and piezoelectricity. Furthermore, the wearable hybrid nanogenerator is demonstrated to be able to harvest biomechanical energy from actions in life. Our findings provide an effective method for developing high-performance nanogenerators.

It is still a challenge for flexible electronic materials to realize integrated strain sensors with a large linear working range, high sensitivity, good response durability, good skin affinity and good air permeability. In this paper, we present a simple and scalable porous piezoresistive/capacitive dual-mode sensor with a porous structure in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) embedded on its internal surface to form a three-dimensional spherical-shell-structured conductive network. Thanks to the unique spherical-shell conductive network of MWCNTs and the uniform elastic deformation of the cross-linked PDMS porous structure under compression, our sensor offers a dual piezoresistive/capacitive strain-sensing capability, a wide pressure response range (1–520 kPa), a very large linear response region (95%), excellent response stability and durability (98% of initial performance after 1000 compression cycles). Multi-walled carbon nanotubes were coated on the surface of refined sugar particles by continuous agitation. Ultrasonic PDMS solidified with crystals was attached to the multi-walled carbon nanotubes. After the crystals were dissolved, the multi-walled carbon nanotubes were attached to the porous surface of the PDMS, forming a three-dimensional spherical-shell-structure network. The porosity of the porous PDMS was 53.9%. The large linear induction range was mainly related to the good conductive network of the MWCNTs in the porous structure of the crosslinked PDMS and the elasticity of the material, which ensured the uniform deformation of the porous structure under compression. The porous conductive polymer flexible sensor prepared by us can be assembled into a wearable sensor with good human motion detection ability. For example, human movement can be detected by responding to stress in the joints of the fingers, elbows, knees, plantar, etc., during movement. Finally, our sensors can also be used for simple gesture and sign language recognition, as well as speech recognition by monitoring facial muscle activity. This can play a role in improving communication and the transfer of information between people, especially in facilitating the lives of people with disabilities.