Transparent, self-adhesive, highly environmental stable, and water-resistant ionogel enabled reliable strain/temperature sensors and underwater communicators

Abstract

Electronic skins have gained considerable attentions for their promising applications in flexible and wearable electronics. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to realize high performance underwater sensing due to the great differences between the aquatic environment and the land environment. Herein, we developed hydrophobic ionogel consisting of hydrophobic polymer network and ionic liquid with high transparency, good stretchability, temperature-dependent ionic conductivity, long-term environmental stability, and excellent adhesion property. These merits enabled the ionogel-based sensor to be employed as strain and temperature sensor, exhibiting excellent sensing performance, such as wide strain range (0.05−250%), rapid response (100 ms), good durability, broad operating temperature window (−60−100 °C), and high-precision thermosensation (0.05 °C). More interestingly, the superior water-resistance ability of the ionogel endowed the ion-conducting gels with tremendous sensing performance in aqueous environment, performing as a wearable sensor for underwater communication and aquatic animals research.