Dynamic and mechanically robust and ultrafast healable ionogel for nerve fiber-inspired signal transmitter

Abstract

Mechanical robustness in combination with ultrafast healability has been pursued for soft conductors in applications of flexible electronics. Inspired by the unique dense H-bond arrays in spider silk and the rapid diselenide metathesis under visible light irradiation, herein, a dynamic, robust, and ultrafast healable supramolecular poly(urethane-urea) ionogel (PUSeIL) was designed. The resultant PUSeIL exhibited a tensile strength of 22 MPa, a toughness of 109.8 MJ m⁻³, and an ultrafast self-healability in 30 s. Besides self-welding and recyclability, its tunable stress relaxation derived from the excellent spatial controllability of diselenide metathesis under light irradiation further provided a possibility for patterns with variable structural colors and flat-to-3D shape-morphing. When serving as the nerve fiber-inspired signal transmitter by mimicking the structure and functions of the myelinated axon, its faithful and high throughput information interaction, ultrafast self-healability, and long-term working stability enabled PUSeIL as a communication unit for message and energy delivery. Thus, this study not only provides a new platform for designing dynamic, mechanically robust, and ultrafast self-healing ionic conductivity but also promises the facileness of building damage-endurable soft electronics and applying them to human–machine interfaces.