Archimedean Spiral Inspired Conductive Supramolecular Elastomer with Rapid Electrical and Mechanical Self-Healing Capability for Sensor Application

In addition to flexibility and stretchability, self-healing capability will become another characteristic for next-generation electronics and devices. However, developing electronic materials with both good mechanical and electrical self-healing abilities still remains a great challenge yet an exciting goal. Herein, a new kind of self-healing conductive elastomer via alliance of supramolecular chemistry and Archimedean spiral-structure design is reported to break the trade-off between mechanical and electrical healing capabilities. The spirally structured conductive layout enables the material to rapidly self-heal both mechanical (within 15 s) and electrical (within 0.25 s) damages with high efficiency, while without sacrificing the softness and stretchability of the self-healing elastomer matrix. As a proof-of-concept, such materials can be used to fabricate self-healable wearable sensors for monitoring diverse human activities. The rapidly, efficiently, mechanically, and electrically self-healing materials demonstrated in this work facilitate the design and application of a wide range of stretchable and reliable electronic devices.