Dynamic Ag-N Bond Enhanced Stretchable Conductor for Transparent and Self-Healing Electronic Skin

Stretchable conductors have been achieved by stacking conductive nano-materials onto the surfaces of elastomeric substrates. However, many of them show a dramatic decrease in conductivity under strain without an efficient way for the conductive layer to release strain. Here, we report a transparent, stretchable and self-healing conductor with excellent mechano-electrical stability by introducing dynamic bonding between conductive nano-materials and an elastomeric substrate. We prepare the conductor by semiembedding Ag nanowires (AgNWs) into a self-healing PDMS-based elastomer, which is modified with bipyridine (Bpy) ligand and further crosslinked by adding Zn2+ as coordinator (Zn-Bpy-PDMS). The dynamic Ag-N bonds not only improve the wettability of the substrate and facilitate spreading of AgNWs, but also reversibly break and reform to accommodate deformation of AgNWs. As a result, the resistance increase of Zn-Bpy-PDMS/AgNWs is much smaller than that without the dynamic bonding (PDMS/AgNWs). Besides, thi...