Soft Thermoplastic Polyurethane/Silver Nanowire Membranes with Low Hysteresis for Large Strain Sensing and Joule Heating

Abstract

Multifunctional flexible electronic membranes are popular in wearable electronics. This paper presents a conductive composite membrane fabricated by electrospinning thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) and amphiphilic triblock copolymer, followed by in situ dopamine self-polymerization and silver nanowire (AgNWs) loading. This careful interfacial design results in a soft, stretchable, and low-hysteresis multifunctional electronic membrane. The prepared composite membrane exhibits excellent interfacial transfer, showing a hysteresis loss factor increase of less than 15% compared to the pristine TPU after 100 cycles at 100% strain. This soft and breathable conductive membrane demonstrates exceptional large-strain sensing performance, characterized by a fast response time (<400 ms), wide sensing range (up to 200%), good cycling stability, and durability. The conductive membrane can rapidly heat up from room temperature to over 80 °C under a low voltage of 3.0 V, exhibiting a good linear relationship between Joule heating and strain. This low-hysteresis conductive membrane, based on hierarchical viscoelastic transfer, will contribute to the advancement of electronic devices integrating largestrain sensing and thermal management.