Monolithic 3D printing of embeddable and highly stretchable strain sensors using conductive ionogels

High-sensitivity and ultralow-hysteresis fluorine-rich ionogel strain sensors for multi-environment contact and contactless sensing

Information transduction via soft strain sensors under harsh conditions such as marine, oily liquid, vacuum, and extreme temperatures without excess encapsulation facilitates modern scientific and military exploration. However, most reported soft strain sensors struggle to meet these requirements, especially in complex environments. Herein, a class of fluorine-rich ionogels with tunable ultimate strain, high conductivity, and multi-environment tolerance are designed. Abundant ion-dipole and dipole-dipole interactions lead to excellent miscibility between the hydrophobic ionic liquid and the fluorinated polyacrylate matrix, as well as adhesion to diverse substrates in amphibious environments. The ionogel-based sensors, even in encapsulation-free form, exhibit stable operation with a negligible hysteresis (as low as 0.119%) and high sensitivity (gauge factor of up to 6.54) under amphibious conditions. Multi-environment sensing instances in contact and even contactless forms are also demonstrated. This study opens the door for the artificial syntheses of multi-environment tolerance ionic skins with robust sensing applications in soft electronics and robotics.

A fully hydrophobic ionogel enables highly efficient wearable underwater sensors and communicators

Underwater sensing has extraordinary significance in ocean exploration (e.g., marine resources development, marine biology research, and marine environment reconnaissance), but the great difference between the marine environment and the land environment seriously prevents current traditional sensors from being applied in underwater sensing. Herein, we reported a fully hydrophobic ionogel with long-term underwater adhesion and stability as a highly efficient wearable underwater sensor that displays an excellent sensing performance, including high sensitivity, rapid responsiveness and superior durability. Of greater significance, the ionogel sensor showed tremendous potential in underwater sensing applications for communication, posture monitoring and marine biological research.

Study on the Printability through Digital Light Processing Technique of Ionic Liquids for CO2 Capture

Here we present new 3D printable materials based on the introduction of different commercially available ionic liquids (ILs) in the starting formulations. We evaluate the influence of these additives on the printability of such formulations through light-induced 3D printing (digital light processing-DLP), investigating as well the effect of ionic liquids with polymerizable groups. The physical chemical properties of such materials are compared, focusing on the permeability towards CO2 of the different ILs present in the formulations. At last, we show the possibility of 3D printing high complexity structures, which could be the base of new high complexity filters for a more efficient CO2 capture.