Fast room-temperature self-healing siloxane elastomer for healable stretchable electronics

Abstract

Siloxane elastomers having simultaneously high stretchability, fast and efficient self-healing abilities at room temperature and excellent mechanical properties have broad application prospects in many fields. However, it is still challenging to satisfy this request. In this work, a stretchable, fast self-healing siloxane elastomer was successfully synthesized by introducing aromatic disulfides into a siloxane matrix. The resulting siloxane elastomer exhibited a tensile stress of 0.5 MPa, an elongation at break over 1000%, and a healing efficiency above 95% at room temperature. The healed siloxane elastomer could recover an elongation at break of 357 ± 15% after healing for only one minute at room temperature. A healing efficiency higher than 90% was achieved even after surface aging or by overlap contact, which was due to the presence of the dynamic disulfide bonds. Furthermore, the elastomer was successfully deployed as the substrate for self-healing stretchable electronics. As a proof-of-concept, stretchable electrode and stretchable strain sensors were produced, and they all showed high stretchability, fast self-healing properties at room temperature and high durability and stability, paving the way to promising applications in stretchable and wearable electronics.