Dialcohol Cellulose Nanocrystals Enhanced Polymerizable Deep Eutectic Solvent‐Based Self‐Healing Ion Conductors with Ultra‐Stretchability and Sensitivity

Abstract

Abstract Recently, ion conductors have been extensively explored in various fields due to their flexibility, sensitivity, and conductivity. However, ultrastretchable and self‐healing ion conductors with wide sensing ranges and high sensitivity are rarely reported. In this study, dialcohol cellulose nanocrystals (DCNCs) are successfully fabricated by sequential periodate oxidization and reduction and introduced them into polymerizable deep eutectic solvents (PDES) to prepare nanocomposite ion conductors. Due to the high dispersity of DCNCs in PDES, the obtained ion conductors exhibit improved tensile strain (3869 ± 607.21%) and tensile stress (0.220 ± 0.022 MPa) simultaneously, and display self‐healing ability in terms of both electrical and mechanical properties. In addition, the ion conductors are able to detect human motions by transmitting deformation into resistance signals even after self‐healing, which prolongs the service life. Generally, this study paves the way for the design of self‐healing and stretchable ion conductors for wearable electronics.

Keywords

• cellulose nanocrystals
• ion conductors
• polymerizable deep eutectic solvents
• strain sensors