Intrinsically Stretchable and Self‐Healing Electroconductive Composites Based on Supramolecular Organic Polymer Embedded with Copper Microparticles

Abstract

Integration of electrical conductivity, stretchability, and self‐healing properties of electronic material is a promising way to meet the criteria for developing next‐generation technologies ranging from ordinary sustainable electronics to high‐tech human–machine interfaces. To this particular purpose, a cost‐effective composite material having simultaneous functionalities of electrical conductivity, stretchability, and self‐healability based on supramolecular organic polymer and copper microparticles is presented. The composite can be mass‐produced via the sol–gel method and is tunable by adjusting the copper loading. Electrical and mechanical characterizations show that the composite material owns not only a high stretchability (≥120%) but also an excellent self‐healability at ambient conditions within 5 min. The healing efficiency is about 90% for its mechanical property and almost 100% for its electrical properties. Besides, the electrical properties are found in the range of semiconductors that can be restored upon five cutting–healing cycles. One‐step further, the developed material is utilized to fabricate a wearable strain sensor. Also, real‐time human motion detection is demonstrated using the fabricated sensor. These results exhibit the potential of the material for developing self‐healing electronic devices and show promising directions in the field of wearable and sustainable electronics, human–machine interfaces.

Bioinspired Self‐healing Soft Electronics

“…Electronic conductors in self-healing soft electronics are usually constructed by filling conductive nanofillers, such as silver nanowires, silver nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, into self-healing polymers or hydrogels (Figure 3c i). [66][67][68][69][70] A typical application of self-healing conductor-based soft electronics is self-healing TENG. As depicted in Figure 3c ii, when a force is applied, the triboelectrically negative material and triboelectrically positive material come into contact, and the charge transfer from the positive material to the negative material, producing equivalent negative and positive charges on both surfaces.…”

Self-Healing Polymers for Electronics and Energy Devices

“…Self-healable semiconducting polymer composites can also be prepared by adding conductive fillers into a dielectric polymer matrix containing hydrogen-bonding groups. , Khatib et al demonstrated a fully stretchable FET, in which all the components, including the dielectric, electrodes, and semiconducting channel, were made of automatically self-healable materials . Specifically, the semiconducting layer was obtained by plastering CNTs on the surface of a poly­(urea-urethane) (PUU) dielectric.…”

Wearable Electronics Based on Stretchable Organic Semiconductors

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Notably, flexible and stretchable devices, which can be bent, twisted, compressed, folded, and even stretched without compromising their electrical performance, reliability, and integration, are emerging as promising candidates for next generation, human friendly wearable electronics because they can be conformably coated on human skin without discomfort from mismatches in mechanical properties between the human body and electronics. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] To date, considerable efforts have been dedicated to the fabrication of stretchable devices for the applications in wearable electronics. For example, wearable sensors based on flexible and stretchable devices allow for continuous, noninvasive, realtime monitoring of human activity and health.…”