Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Yang, Kai
• Li, Qingsi
• Tian, Shu
• Wang, Jiancheng
• Lu, Guangming
• Guo, Hongshuang
• Xu, Sijia
• Zhang, Lei
• Yang, Jing

Titel

Highly Stretchable, Self-Healing, and Sensitive E‑Skins at −78 °C for Polar Exploration

Ist Teil von

• Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024-04, Vol.146 (15), p.10699-10707

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Chemical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Ultralow temperature-tolerant electronic skins (e-skins) can endow polar robots with tactile feedback for exploring in extremely cold polar environments. However, it remains a challenge to develop e-skins that enable sensitive touch sensation and self-healing at ultralow temperatures. Herein, we describe the development of a sensitive robotic hand e-skin that can stretch, self-heal, and sense at temperatures as low as −78 °C. The elastomeric substrate of this e-skin is based on poly­(dimethylsiloxane) supramolecular polymers and multistrength dynamic H-bonds, in particular with quadruple H-bonding motifs (UPy). The structure–performance relationship of the elastomer at ultralow temperatures is investigated. The results show that elastomers with side-chain UPy units exhibit higher stretchability (∼3257%) and self-healing efficiency compared to those with main-chain UPy units. This is attributed to the lower binding energy variation and lower potential well. Based on the elastomer with side-chain UPy and man-made electric ink, a sensitive robotic hand e-skin for usage at −78 °C is constructed to precisely sense the shape of objects and specific symbols, and its sensation can completely self-recover after being damaged. The findings of this study contribute to the concept of using robotic hands with e-skins in polar environments that make human involvement limited, dangerous, or impossible.