Highly conductive organic-ionogels with excellent hydrophobicity and flame resistance

Abstract

Very different from electronic conductors, ionic conductors usually possess some unique functions such as stretchability, transparency and ionic conductivity, thus exhibiting a great promise in the flexible wearable electronic devices. Herein, we develop a novel stretchable transparent organic-ionogel (OIG-TBP-50) via a rapid photo-curing process, in which we select the mixture of tributyl phosphate (TBP) and 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)amine ([BMMIm][NTf2]) as fireproof and conductive solvent, respectively. Just benefiting from the good synergistic effect of TBP and [BMMIm][NTf2], our-designed OIGs demonstrate excellent hydrophobicity and flame resistance as well as perfect stretchability (757%), high transparency (93%) in visible region, good environmental stability, wide temperature tolerance range (from −55 °C to 180 °C) and high ionic conductivity (1.73 × 10-3 S cm−1 at room temperature). In addition, our stretchable transparent OIGs even could light LED lamps under an alternating current field when directly used as the flexible conductive substrate. Further applying such OIGs as ionic conductor to assemble flexible sensor and touch screen, both of them could transport rapid signal response under slight touch stress.