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Nano Research 2024, 17(3): 1913-1922 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6010-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 19 August 2023

Liquid-metals-induced formation of MXene/polyacrylamide composite organohydrogels for wearable flexible electronics

Show Author's Information Minying Wu1,  Bin Chen1,  Xueliang Fan1,  Tong Ye1,  Yuanyuan Fang1,  Qian Zhang1,  Fangzhou Zhou1,  Yajun Wang2( ),  Yi Tang1( )
Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
College of Chemistry & Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325027, China
Keywords:
mechanical properties, conductivity, MXene, organohydrogels, environmental adaptability
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Nano device
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Wu M, Chen B, Fan X, et al. Liquid-metals-induced formation of MXene/polyacrylamide composite organohydrogels for wearable flexible electronics. Nano Research, 2024, 17(3): 1913-1922. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6010-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Organohydrogels have demonstrated superior environmental adaptability and frost resistance compared to conventional hydrogels, thereby prompting considerable interests in the development and design of innovative organohydrogels. Herein, we report an effective one-pot method for fabricating MXene/polyacrylamide (MXene/PAM) composite organohydrogel (MAOH) by employing Ga liquid metals (Ga LMs) as a highly reactive component in the induced free radical polymerization reaction, without the need for additional heating or cross-linking agents. This synthetic protocol addresses the time-consuming and organic solvent waste concerns associated with traditional solvent displacement methods for organohydrogel preparation. The incorporation of MXene not only highly enhances the conductivity but also confers improved mechanical properties of MAOH. The MAOH exhibits excellent environmental adaptability (> 7 d), sustained moisture retention, remarkable self-healing capabilities, and outstanding mechanical properties under low temperatures (−20 °C). It demonstrates exceptional performance in micro-motion monitoring, rapid response time (125 ms), superior stretchability, and a broad range of strains (0.3%–600%). Therefore, the designed MAOH has great potential for applications in diverse fields such as prosthetics, electronic skin, human–machine interaction, and smart terminals.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Liquid-metals-induced formation of MXene/polyacrylamide composite organohydrogels for wearable flexible electronics

Show Author's information Minying Wu1, Bin Chen1, Xueliang Fan1, Tong Ye1, Yuanyuan Fang1, Qian Zhang1, Fangzhou Zhou1, Yajun Wang2( ), Yi Tang1( )
Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
College of Chemistry & Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325027, China

Abstract

Organohydrogels have demonstrated superior environmental adaptability and frost resistance compared to conventional hydrogels, thereby prompting considerable interests in the development and design of innovative organohydrogels. Herein, we report an effective one-pot method for fabricating MXene/polyacrylamide (MXene/PAM) composite organohydrogel (MAOH) by employing Ga liquid metals (Ga LMs) as a highly reactive component in the induced free radical polymerization reaction, without the need for additional heating or cross-linking agents. This synthetic protocol addresses the time-consuming and organic solvent waste concerns associated with traditional solvent displacement methods for organohydrogel preparation. The incorporation of MXene not only highly enhances the conductivity but also confers improved mechanical properties of MAOH. The MAOH exhibits excellent environmental adaptability (> 7 d), sustained moisture retention, remarkable self-healing capabilities, and outstanding mechanical properties under low temperatures (−20 °C). It demonstrates exceptional performance in micro-motion monitoring, rapid response time (125 ms), superior stretchability, and a broad range of strains (0.3%–600%). Therefore, the designed MAOH has great potential for applications in diverse fields such as prosthetics, electronic skin, human–machine interaction, and smart terminals.

Keywords: mechanical properties, conductivity, MXene, organohydrogels, environmental adaptability

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 26 May 2023
Revised: 12 July 2023
Accepted: 15 July 2023
Published: 19 August 2023
Issue date: March 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFA0209402) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22088101, 22175132, and 22072028).

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