Electrically Programmable Interfacial Adhesion for Ultrastrong Hydrogel Bonding

Abstract

Adjustable interfacial adhesion is of great significance in smart-hydrogel-related engineering fields. This study presents an electroadhesion strategy for universal and ultrastrong hydrogel bonding with electrically programmable strength. An ionic hydrogel containing lithium ions is designed to achieve hydrated-ion-diffusion-mediated interfacial adhesion, where external electric fields are employed to precisely control spatiotemporal dynamics of the ion diffusion across ionic adhesion region (IAR). The hydrogel can realize a universal, ultrastrong, efficient, tough, reversible, and environmentally tolerant electroadhesion to diverse hydrogels, whose peak adhesion strength and interfacial adhesion toughness are as high as 1.2 MPa and 3750 J m^-2 , respectively. With a mechanoelectric coupling model, the dominant role of the hydrated ions in IAR played in the interfacial electroadhesion is further quantitatively revealed. The proposed strategy opens a door for developing high-performance adhesion hydrogels with electrically programmable functions, which are indispensable for various emerging fields like flexible electronics and soft robotics.