Super Tough and Spontaneous Water-Assisted Autonomous Self-Healing Elastomer for Underwater Wearable Electronics

Cyuan Lun He, Fang Cheng Liang*, Loganathan Veeramuthu, Chia Jung Cho, Jean Sebastien Benas, Yung Ru Tzeng, Yen Lin Tseng, Wei Cheng Chen, Alina Rwei, Chi Ching Kuo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

86 Citations (Scopus)
68 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Self-healing soft electronic material composition is crucial to sustain the device long-term durability. The fabrication of self-healing soft electronics exposed to high moisture environment is a significant challenge that has yet to be fully achieved. This paper presents the novel concept of a water-assisted room-temperature autonomous self-healing mechanism based on synergistically dynamic covalent Schiff-based imine bonds with hydrogen bonds. The supramolecular water-assisted self-healing polymer (WASHP) films possess rapid self-healing kinetic behavior and high stretchability due to a reversible dissociation–association process. In comparison with the pristine room-temperature self-healing polymer, the WASHP demonstrates favorable mechanical performance at room temperature and a short self-healing time of 1 h; furthermore, it achieves a tensile strain of 9050%, self-healing efficiency of 95%, and toughness of 144.2 MJ m−3. As a proof of concept, a versatile WASHP-based light-emitting touch-responsive device (WASHP-LETD) and perovskite quantum dot (PeQD)-based white LED backlight are designed. The WASHP-LETD has favorable mechanical deformation performance under pressure, bending, and strain, whereas the WASHP-PeQDs exhibit outstanding long-term stability even over a period exceeding one year in a boiling water environment. This paper provides a mechanically robust approach for producing eco-friendly, economical, and waterproof e-skin device components.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2102275
Number of pages11
JournalAdvanced Science
Volume8
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • flexible wearable devices
  • light-emitting diodes
  • perovskite quantum dots
  • underwater electronics
  • water-insensitive self-healing elastomers

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