Peptidoglycan-inspired autonomous ultrafast self-healing bio-friendly elastomers for bio-integrated electronics

• Published in: National science review Vol. 8; no. 5; p. nwaa154
• Main Authors: Zhang, Luzhi, Liang, Jiahui, Jiang, Chenyu, Liu, Zenghe, Sun, Lijie, Chen, Shuo, Xuan, Huixia, Lei, Dong, Guan, Qingbao, Ye, Xiaofeng, You, Zhengwei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China Oxford University Press 01.05.2021
• Subjects: stretchable conductor; ultrafast self-healing; elastomers; biomimetic; bio-integrated electronics
• ISSN: 2095-5138; 2053-714X
• DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa154

Abstract Elastomers are essential for stretchable electronics, which have become more and more important in bio-integrated devices. To ensure high compliance with the application environment, elastomers are expected to resist, and even self-repair, mechanical damage, while being friendly to the human body. Herein, inspired by peptidoglycan, we designed the first room-temperature autonomous self-healing biodegradable and biocompatible elastomers, poly(sebacoyl 1,6-hexamethylenedicarbamate diglyceride) (PSeHCD) elastomers. The unique structure including alternating ester-urethane moieties and bionic hybrid crosslinking endowed PSeHCD elastomers superior properties including ultrafast self-healing, tunable biomimetic mechanical properties, facile reprocessability, as well as good biocompatibility and biodegradability. The potential of the PSeHCD elastomers was demonstrated as a super-fast self-healing stretchable conductor (21 s) and motion sensor (2 min). This work provides a new design and synthetic principle of elastomers for applications in bio-integrated electronics. Superfast autonomous self-healing biocompatible and biodegradable elastomers were developed based on unique alternating ester-urethane moieties and bionic hybrid crosslinking networks, showing great potential for stretchable electronics.