Waterproof, Highly Tough, and Fast Self-Healing Polyurethane for Durable Electronic Skin

Abstract

A stretchable electronic skin (e-skin) requires a durable elastomeric matrix to serve in various conditions. Therefore, excellent and balanced properties such as elasticity, water proof capability, toughness, and self-healing are demanded. However, it is very difficult and often contradictory to optimize them at one time. Here, a polyurethane (BS-PU-3) containing a polydisperse hard segment, hydrophobic soft segment, and a dynamic disulfide bond was prepared by one-pot synthesis. Unlike the normal two-pot reaction, BS-PU-3 obtained through the one-pot method owned a higher density of self-healing points along the main chain and a faster self-healing speed, which reached 1.11 μm/min in a cut-through sample and recovered more than 93% of virgin mechanical properties in 6 h at room temperature. Moreover, a remarkable toughness of 27.5 MJ/m3 assures its durability as an e-skin matrix. Even with a 1 mm notch (half of the total width) on a standard dumbbell specimen, it could still bear the tensile strain up to 324% without any crack propagation. With polybutadiene as the soft segment, the shape, microstructure, and conductivity in BS-PU-3 and BS-PU-3-based stretchable electronics kept very stable after soaking in water for 3 days, proving the super waterproof property. An e-skin demo was constructed, and self-healing in pressure sensitivity, mechanical, and electrical properties were verified.