A Sunlight-Degradable Autonomous Self-Healing Supramolecular Elastomer for Flexible Electronic Devices

Abstract

Preparing an autonomous self-healing supramolecular elastomer with sunlight degradability is still a challenging task in related fields. In this work, we report a supramolecular elastomer by using the classic host–guest complexation of visible-light-photolabile picolinium-containing adamantanes (Ad) and β-cyclodextrin nanogels (β-CD). The as-synthesized elastomer possesses merits of high mechanical strength, excellent stretchability (>1500% strain), efficient self-healing (>85% at 60 min), ultrastability against electrolytes, and photodegradation properties, implying versatile applications in flexible and stretchable electronics. As proofs-of-concept, self-healable strain and pressure sensors using conductive elastomers are first fabricated, which feature exceptionally high sensitivity (e.g., 0.1% in capacitance at 0.2 kPa) and fast response to detect human body motions. A degradable and flexible supercapacitor is also fabricated using the conductive elastomer as the flexible matrix. Remarkably, both the elastomer and this supercapacitor can be degraded upon the exposure to sunlight irradiation in 48 h at very mild conditions. Therefore, it is anticipated that such a novel strategy and the as-prepared supramolecular elastomer can inspire further applications in the multidisciplinary fields of materials science, electronics, etc.