Nguyen, NT;
Jennings, J;
Milani, AH;
Martino, CDS;
Nguyen, LTB;
Wu, S;
Mokhtar, MZ;
... Saunders, BR; + view all
(2022)
Highly Stretchable Conductive Covalent Coacervate Gels for Electronic Skin.
Biomacromolecules
, 23
(3)
pp. 1423-1432.
10.1021/acs.biomac.1c01660.
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Abstract
Highly stretchable electrically conductive hydrogels have been extensively researched in recent years, especially for applications in strain and pressure sensing, electronic skin, and implantable bioelectronic devices. Herein, we present a new cross-linked complex coacervate approach to prepare conductive hydrogels that are both highly stretchable and compressive. The gels involve a complex coacervate between carboxylated nanogels and branched poly(ethylene imine), whereby the latter is covalently cross-linked by poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE). Inclusion of graphene nanoplatelets (Gnp) provides electrical conductivity as well as tensile and compressive strain-sensing capability to the hydrogels. We demonstrate that judicious selection of the molecular weight of the PEGDGE cross-linker enables the mechanical properties of these hydrogels to be tuned. Indeed, the gels prepared with a PEGDGE molecular weight of 6000 g/mol defy the general rule that toughness decreases as strength increases. The conductive hydrogels achieve a compressive strength of 25 MPa and a stretchability of up to 1500%. These new gels are both adhesive and conformal. They provide a self-healable electronic circuit, respond rapidly to human motion, and can act as strain-dependent sensors while exhibiting low cytotoxicity. Our new approach to conductive gel preparation is efficient, involves only preformed components, and is scalable.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Highly Stretchable Conductive Covalent Coacervate Gels for Electronic Skin |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acs.biomac.1c01660 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.1c01660 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2022 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
| Keywords: | Adhesives, Electric Conductivity, Graphite, Humans, Hydrogels, Wearable Electronic Devices |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Eastman Dental Institute > Biomaterials and Tissue Eng UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Eastman Dental Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10148442 |
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