Fluorescent double network ionogels with fast self-healability and high resilience for reliable human motion detection

Abstract

Fascinating properties are displayed by high-performance ionogel-based flexible strain sensors, thereby gaining increasing attention in various applications ranging from human motion monitoring to soft robotics. However, the integration of excellent properties such as optical and mechanical properties and satisfactory sensing performance for one ionogel sensor is still a challenge. In particular, fatigue-resistant and self-healing properties are essential to continuous sensing. Herein, we design a flexible ion-conductive sensor based on a multifunctional ionogel with a double network using polyacrylamide, amino-modified agarose, 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxaldehyde and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. The ionogel exhibits comprehensive properties including high transparency (>95%), nonflammability, strong adhesion and good temperature tolerance (about −96 to 260 °C), especially adaptive for extreme conditions. The dynamic imine bonds and abundant hydrogen bonds endow the ionogel with excellent self-healing capability, to realize rapid self-repair within minutes, as well as good mechanical properties and ductility to dissipate input energy and realize high resilience. Notably, unexpected fluorescence has been observed for the ionogel because of the gelation-induced emission phenomenon. Flexible strain sensors prepared directly from ionogels can sensitively monitor and differentiate various human motions, exhibiting a fast response time (38 ms), high sensitivity (gauge factor = 3.13 at 800% strain), good durability (>1000 cycles) and excellent stability over a wide temperature range (−30 to 80 °C). Therefore, the prepared ionogel as a high-performance flexible strain sensor in this study shows tremendous potential in wearable devices and soft ionotronics.