Self-Healable Elastomeric Network with Dynamic Disulfide, Imine, and Hydrogen Bonds for Flexible Strain Sensor

Graphical A strain sensor (PIH 2 T 1 -tri/CNT-3) composed of self-repairable crosslinked elastomer substrate and conductive layer was prepared. The PIH 2 T 1 -tri elastomer had excellent self-healing ability and good mechanical integrity. The PIH 2 T 1 -tri/CNT-3 sensor had high sensitivity, short response time, and long-term durability. Self-healable and stretchable elastomeric material is essential for the development of flexible electronics devices to ensure their stable performance. In this study, a strain sensor (PIH 2 T 1 -tri/CNT-3) composed of self-repairable crosslinked elastomer substrate (PIH 2 T 1 -tri, containing multiple reversible repairing sites such as disulfide, imine, and hydrogen bonds) and conductive layer (carbon nanotube, CNT) was prepared. The PIH 2 T 1 -tri elastomer had excellent self-healing ability (healing efficiency=91 %). It exhibited good mechanical integrity in terms of elongation at break (672 %), tensile strength (1.41 MPa). The Young's modulus (0.39 MPa) was close to that of human skin. The PIH 2 T 1 -tri/CNT-3 sensor also demonstrated an effective self-healing function for electrical conduction and sensing property. Meanwhile, it had high sensitivity (gauge factor (GF)=24.1), short response time (120 ms), and long-term durability (4000 cycles). This study offers a novel self-healable elastomer platform with carbon based conductive components to develop flexible strain sensors towards high performance soft electronics.