A Transparent, Self-Healing, Highly Stretchable Ionic Conductor

Self-healing materials can repair damage caused by mechanical wear, thereby extending lifetime of devices. Here, a transparent, self-healing, highly stretchable ionic conductor is presented that autonomously heals after experiencing severe mechanical damage.

We introduce a transparent, highly stretchable ionic conductor with autonomous self-healing capability by harnessing ion–dipole interactions as the dynamic bonds for self-healing. This material tolerates extreme strains exceeding 5000%, features an ionic conductivity of 10⁻⁴ S cm⁻¹, and shows high transparency across the visible spectrum with an average transmittance of 92%. More importantly, the material can completely heal mechanical properties within 24 h at room temperature without any external stimulus. We illustrate the unique combination of attractive properties of the transparent, self-healing, highly stretchable ionic conductor when used to electrically activate transparent artificial muscles that autonomously heal after severe mechanical damage.

A video of the dielectric elastomer actuator can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4qCxOB3EVI

This paper, which is the result of a collaboration between Prof. Chao Wang's group from the University of California, Riverside and Prof. Christoph Keplinger's group from the University of Colorado, Boulder is now online in Advanced Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201605099):

Supporting Information:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/adma.201605099/asset/supinfo/adma201605099-sup-0001-S1.pdf?v=1&s=151a0a908110b2894cc3bf271fb9caa4a6494950

Supporting Videos:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/adma.201605099/asset/supin…

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/adma.201605099/asset/supin…

We welcome any and all comments from the community, and are looking forward to finding additional applications for this material.