Highly mechanical properties, anti-freezing, and ionic conductive organohydrogel for wearable sensors

Abstract

As a three-dimensional cross-linked network polymer with electrical conductivity, the ionic conductive hydrogel has enormous application potential in electronic devices, bionic skin, sensors, and other regions. However, due to the limitations of poor mechanical properties and single functionality, conductive hydrogels are difficult to fully meet the application requirements. In this paper, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and tannic acid (TA) were used as raw materials, DMSO/H2O binary solvent system was selected, and NaCl was introduced to construct an ionic organohydrogel with high strength, high toughness, stretchability, frost resistance and ionic conductivity. To demonstrate the application, PVA-TA organohydrogel was used as a wire to light up the LED in circuit and can be used as a touch screen pen for electronic screen painting. Besides, PVA-TA organohydrogel had high sensitivity to both tensile deformation and compression deformation. So it can monitor the movement of the hand and provide a path for flexible mechanical sensors. This new organohydrogel has considerable application prospects in the fields of antifreeze materials and multifunctional sensors.