A stretchable, self-healing, okra polysaccharide-based hydrogel for fast-response and ultra-sensitive strain sensors

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules Vol. 205; pp. 491 - 499
• Main Authors: Ma, Yinghui, Liu, Kuo, Lao, Li, Li, Xing, Zhang, Zuocai, Lu, Shaorong, Li, Yuqi, Li, Ziwei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 30.04.2022
• Subjects: Okra polysaccharide-based hydrogel; Sandwich structure; Self-healing; Strain sensor; Stretchable; Stretchable; Okra polysaccharide-based hydrogel; Self-healing; Strain sensor; Sandwich structure
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.02.065

Self-healing conductive hydrogels have attracted widespread attention as a new generation of smart wearable devices and human motion monitoring sensors. To improve the biocompatibility and degradability of such strain sensors, we report a sensor with a sandwich structure based on a biomucopolysaccharide hydrogel. The sensor was constructed with a stretchable self-healing hydrogel composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), okra polysaccharide (OP), borax, and a conductive layer of silver nanowires. The obtained OP/PVA/borax hydrogel exhibited excellent stretchability (~1073.7%) and self-healing ability (93.6% within 5 min), and the resultant hydrogel-based strain sensor demonstrated high sensitivity (gauge factor = 6.34), short response time (~20 ms), and good working stability. This study provides innovative ideas for the development of biopolysaccharide hydrogels for applications in the field of sensors. [Display omitted]