Autonomous Self-Healing Interfaces and Devices

Soft materials present opportunities to take advantage of the mechanical compliancy. However, they are usually made of polymers that could be easily damaged mechanical and functionally. Hence, self-healing capable materials are an exciting avenue to address this shortcoming whilst maintaining functionality¹. In this talk, I will present the use of ionogels² and other composites to impart electronic mechanical sensing functionality³ while still retaining the ability to autonomously self-repair⁴. These self-healing materials and devices could play a role to reduce electronic waste and contribute to the much needed circular economy for plastic electronics.<br/>References<br/>1. Tan, Y. J., Wu, J., Li, H. & Tee, B. C. K. Self-Healing Electronic Materials for a Smart and Sustainable Future. <i>ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces</i> <b>10</b>, 15331–15345 (2018).<br/>2. Cao, Y. <i>et al.</i> Self-healing electronic skins for aquatic environments. <i>Nat. Electron.</i> <b>2</b>, 75–82 (2019).<br/>3. Guo, H. <i>et al.</i> Artificially innervated self-healing foams as synthetic piezo-impedance sensor skins. <i>Nat. Commun.</i> <b>11</b>, 5747 (2020).<br/>4. Tan, Y. J., Susanto, G. J., Anwar Ali, H. P. & Tee, B. C. K. Progress and Roadmap for Intelligent Self-Healing Materials in Autonomous Robotics. <i>Adv. Mater.</i> <b>33</b>, 2002800 (2021).