Versatile Light-Mediated Synthesis of Dry Ion-Conducting Dynamic Bottlebrush Networks with High Elasticity, Interfacial Adhesiveness, and Flame Retardancy

Abstract

Dry ion-conducting elastomers possess superior reliability in soft ionotronic devices when compared to ion-conducting gels that suffer from liquid evaporation or leakage issues. Recent works have shown that bottlebrush architecture can effectively reduce structural relaxation time so that the bottlebrush polymers have concentrated charge carriers and high chain mobility that result in good ionic conductivity and mechanical flexibility. Here, we report a novel and versatile light-mediated strategy for synthesizing dry ion-conducting elastomers with dynamic bottlebrush network structures. The obtained dry ion-conducting dynamic bottlebrush networks (DICDBNs) are colorless and highly transparent and can be simply patterned. We systematically investigate the influence of the number and length of the side chains in the DICDBNs on the physicochemical properties of the resultant materials and find that the optimized DICDBNs have high room-temperature ionic conductivity (2.05 × 10–4 S cm–1), good elasticity (stretchability 923%, 83.3% toughness recovery after 100 uninterrupted strain cycles at a strain of 300%), outstanding healing ability (healing efficiency 90.5%), on-demand degradability, excellent interfacial adhesiveness, good flame retardancy, and strain and temperature dual sensitivity, making them promising candidates for multifunctional wearable ionotronics.

Self-Healing and Adhesive Supersoft Materials Derived from Dynamically Cross-Linked Bottlebrush Polymers for Flexible Sensors

“…As shown in Figure A, Brush-DM could be adhered onto various substrates and initiate the lifting of the corresponding objects, demonstrating its excellent interfacial toughness. The outstanding adhesive property of our material is a result of synergistic effects stemming from the well-designed bottlebrush structure, physical interactions, and low modulus and glass transition temperature of P n BA side chains. ,– …”

Strain-Stiffening Ionogel with High-Temperature Tolerance via the Synergy of Ionic Clusters and Hydrogen Bonds

“…Meanwhile, the GF value will rapidly increase from 0.15 to 1.25 when the PCI is stretched from 10 to 500% (Figure d). The GF values of most ionogels will slightly increase during the stretching process. ,,,,− However, the GF value rarely increases more than 8 times with stretching. In addition, the GF value and stretchability of our sensor are relatively good compared to some recently reported ionogel-based sensors (Table S5).…”

Solid-state, liquid-free ion-conducting elastomers: rising-star platforms for flexible intelligent devices

“…59 The performances of polyLA-based ion-conducting elastomers can be further improved by the rational design of their polymer networks. 55,[60][61][62][63] For instance, the integration of acrylic acid (AAc), choline chloride (ChCl), and ferric chloride (Fe 3+ ) with polyLA can govern the interactions of the polymer networks by virtue of disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonds, and coordination bonds. 55 Owing to the presence of ChCl and Fe 3+ as dual ion-conducting mediators, this polyLA-based composite elastomer presented high conductivity of 0.28 S cm À1 , which is much higher than that of the polyLA/ LiTFSI-based elastomer (0.16 S cm À1 ).…”