Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Cui, Wei
• Zheng, Yong
• Zhu, Ruijie
• Mu, Qifeng
• Wang, Xiaoyu
• Wang, Zhisen
• Liu, Shengqu
• Li, Min
• Ran, Rong

Titel

Strong Tough Conductive Hydrogels via the Synergy of Ion‐Induced Cross‐Linking and Salting‐Out

Ist Teil von

• Advanced functional materials, 2022-09, Vol.32 (39), p.n/a

Ort / Verlag

Hoboken: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Ion is one of the most common additives that can impart electrical conductivity to insulating hydrogels. The concurrent toughening effect of ions, however, is often neglected. This work reports the extreme toughening of hydrogels via the synergistic effect of cations and anions, without the need for specific structure design or adding other reinforcements. The strategy is to equilibrate a physical double network hydrogel consisting of both multivalent cation‐ and kosmotropic anion‐sensitive polymers in specific salt solutions that can induce cross‐linking and salting‐out simultaneously. Both effects are proven positive to boost the mechanical performance and electrical conductivity of the original weak gel, and result in a tough conductive gel with exceptional physical properties, achieving significant enhancements in fracture stress, fracture energy, and ionic conductivity by up to 530‐, 1100‐, and 4.9‐folds, respectively. The optimal fracture stress and toughness reach approximately 15 MPa and 39 kJ m–2, exceeding most state‐of‐the‐art tough conductive hydrogels. Meanwhile, a satisfactory ionic conductivity of 1.5 S m–1 is attained. The presented simple strategy is also found generalizable to other salt ions and polymers, which is expected to expand the applicability of hydrogels to conditions involving demanding mechanical durability. Strong tough conductive hydrogels are facilely developed by equilibrating an originally weak, crack sensitive, and poorly conductive hydrogels into specific salt solutions. The key to achieving the all‐around enhancement is to use the synergy of multivalent cation‐induced cross‐linking and kosmotropic anion‐induced salting‐out. The toughened hydrogels perform well as reliable solid electrolytes in soft electronics.