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Anti‐freezing, Conductive Self‐healing Organohydrogels with Stable Strain‐Sensitivity at Subzero Temperatures
Author(s) -
Rong Qinfeng,
Lei Wenwei,
Chen Lie,
Yin Yongai,
Zhou Jiajia,
Liu Mingjie
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201708614
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , ethylene glycol , polyvinyl alcohol , materials science , solvent , electrical conductor , self healing , chemical engineering , crystallization , conductivity , aqueous solution , molecule , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
Conductive hydrogels are a class of stretchable conductive materials that are important for various applications. However, water‐based conductive hydrogels inevitably lose elasticity and conductivity at subzero temperatures, which severely limits their applications at low temperatures. Herein we report anti‐freezing conductive organohydrogels by using an H 2 O/ethylene glycol binary solvent as dispersion medium. Owing to the freezing tolerance of the binary solvent, our organohydrogels exhibit stable flexibility and strain‐sensitivity in the temperature range from −55.0 to 44.6 °C. Meanwhile, the solvent molecules could form hydrogen bonds with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) chains and induce the crystallization of PVA, greatly improving the mechanical strength of the organohydrogels. Furthermore, the non‐covalent crosslinks endow the conductive organohydrogels with intriguing remoldability and self‐healing capability, which are important for practical applications.