Conductive polyaniline hydrogel featuring high toughness and low hysteresis
Résumé
Polyaniline (PANi) hydrogels show wide applications in artificial skin, flexible robotic, and movement monitor. Nevertheless, limited by the modulus mismatch between rigid PANi and soft hydrogel matrix, high strength and high toughness of PANi hydrogel are mutually exclusive. Although the introduction of sacrificial bonds into hydrogel network can alleviate this contradiction to a certain extent, they always bring about the pronounced energy hysteresis during hydrogel deformations. Inspired by the energy storage and release of macroscopic spring, in this work we propose a molecular entanglement approach for the fabrication of PANi hydrogel featuring high toughness and low hysteresis, where flexible poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) entangles with chemically cross-linked poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as hydrogel matrix, while rigid PANi as conductive fillers. The resultant PAA/PEG/PANi hydrogel exhibits high mechanical properties (fracture strength of 0.75 MPa and toughness of 4.81 MJ·m -3 ) and low energy dissipation ratio (28.2% when stretching to 300%). Moreover, PAA/PEG/PANi hydrogel possesses good electrical response to external force, and can be employed as a strain sensor to monitor movements of human joints by producing specific electrical signals. This work provides a straightforward strategy to prepare tough conductive PANi hydrogel with low hysteresis, showing potentials for the elaboration of healthcare devices.
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