Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1H9, Canada.
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2H7 Alberta, Canada.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Sep 15;622:612-624. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.04.119. Epub 2022 Apr 26.
Development of soft conductive materials has enabled the promising future of wearable electronics for motion sensing. However, conventional soft conductive materials typically lack robust adhesive and on-demand removable properties for a target substrate. Therefore, it is believed that the integration of superior mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and tunable adhesive properties into hydrogels would support and improve their reliable sensing performance.
A hydrogel ionic conductor composed of cationic micelles crosslinked in the polyacrylamide (PAM) network was designed and fabricated. The viscoelastic, mechanical, adhesion, electrical, and antimicrobial properties of the hydrogel were systematically characterized.
The developed ionic conductor possesses a range of desirable properties including mechanical performances such as excellent stretchability (>1100%), toughness, elasticity (recovery from 1000% strain), conductivity (2.72 S·m), and antimicrobial property, owing to the multiple non-covalent supramolecular interactions (e.g., hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic, and π-π/cation-π interactions) present in the cross-linked network. Meanwhile, the developed hydrogel is incorporated with different stimuli-responsive polymers and exhibits a tunable adhesive property (triggerable attachment and on-demand removable capabilities) in adapt to the surrounding environmental conditions (i.e., pH, temperature). With all these significant features, the resulting hydrogel ionic conductor serves as a proof-of-concept motion-sensing system with excellent sensitivity and enhanced reliability for the detection of a wide range of motions.
软导电材料的发展为运动感应的可穿戴电子产品带来了广阔的前景。然而，传统的软导电材料通常缺乏对目标基底的强大粘附性和按需可去除性。因此，人们相信将卓越的机械性能、导电性和可调粘附性能集成到水凝胶中，将支持和改善其可靠的传感性能。
设计并制备了一种由阳离子胶束交联在聚丙烯酰胺（PAM）网络中的水凝胶离子导体。系统地表征了水凝胶的粘弹性、机械、粘附、电和抗菌性能。
所开发的离子导体具有一系列理想的性能，包括机械性能，如出色的拉伸性（>1100%）、韧性、弹性（从 1000%应变恢复）、导电性（2.72 S·m）和抗菌性能，这归因于交联网络中存在的多种非共价超分子相互作用（例如氢键、疏水性和π-π/阳离子-π相互作用）。同时，所开发的水凝胶与不同的刺激响应聚合物结合，并表现出可调的粘附性能（触发式附着和按需可去除能力），以适应周围环境条件（即 pH 值、温度）。由于这些显著的特点，所得到的水凝胶离子导体作为运动感应系统的概念验证，具有出色的灵敏度和可靠性，可用于检测广泛的运动。
