Elastic Nanoparticle-Reinforced, Conductive Structural Color Hydrogel
with Super Stretchable, Self-Adhesion, Self-Healing as
Electrical/Optical Dual-responsive Visual Electronic Skins
Abstract
Developing smart hydrogel with excellent physicochemical properties and
multiple signal output capability for interactively electronic skin
still remains challenging. Here, a conductive structural color hydrogels
with desirable physicochemical properties (including high stretchability
and robustness, self-adhesion and self-healing) was developed to provide
synchronous electronic and visual color signals for e-skins. Highly
charged elastic nanoparticles were elaborately used as building units
for structural color and the hydrogel were prepared by the self-assembly
of the nanoparticle to form a non-close-packed array in a mixture
comprised of acrylamide, SF, rGO and then photopolymerization.
Benefiting from the improved interfacial compatibility between flexible
hydrogel network and elastic nanoparticle, covalent cross-linking
network structure and synergistic multiple non-covalent bonding
interactions, the hydrogel exhibits extraordinary mechanical properties,
excellent self-adhesion to diverse substrate and self-healing at room
temperature. In addition, the hydrogel also exhibited sensitive
resistance changes and synchronous structural color changes under
strain. As a proof-to-concept, the hydrogel displayed superior
capability for real-time color-sensing and electrical signal monitoring
of various human motions, the spatial distribution of external
mechanical stimuli as well as identification of different external
stimuli, indicating promising applications in the fields of
interactively visual electronic skin, wearable devices, and
human-machine interfaces.