Highly Stretchable, Self-Healing, and Low Temperature Resistant Double Network Hydrogel Ionic Conductor as Flexible Sensor and Quasi-Solid Electrolyte.

With the rapid development of flexible energy storage and wearable strain sensing, conductive hydrogels are attracting attention as electrolyte materials for flexible strain sensors and flexible supercapacitors due to their excellent flexibility and wetting properties. In this work, antifreezing hydrogels with high stretchability, adhesion, and conductivity are designed and prepared by introducing phosphoric acid solutions into polyacrylamide and chitosan systems. The multifunctional hydrogel samples prepared by this method can be used as both quasi-solid electrolytes and wearable strain sensors. The hydrogel-based supercapacitor shows a charge/discharge efficiency of 99.67% and a capacitance retention of 98.85% after 10 000 cycles charge/discharge tests at -30 °C. The tiny characteristic heartbeat wave forms are detected by the hydrogel as a flexible strain sensor. It is foreseeable that PCP multifunctional hydrogel can be a promising flexible material for a new generation of flexible sensors and flexible energy storage devices in a certain range of temperatures.