TY - JOUR AU - Lin, Xiuzhu AU - Li, Fan AU - Bing, Yu AU - Fei, Teng AU - Liu, Sen AU - Zhao, Hongran AU - Zhang, Tong PY - 2021/09/22 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Biocompatible Multifunctional E-Skins with Excellent Self-Healing Ability Enabled by Clean and Scalable Fabrication JF - Nano-Micro Letters JA - Nano-Micro Lett VL - 13 IS - SE - Articles DO - 10.1007/s40820-021-00701-8 UR - https://nmlett.org/index.php/nml/article/view/966 SP - 200 AB - <p>Electronic skins (e-skins) with an excellent sensing performance have been widely developed over the last few decades. However, wearability, biocompatibility, environmental friendliness and scalability have become new limitations. Self-healing ability can improve the long-term robustness and reliability of e-skins. However, self-healing ability and integration are hardly balanced in classical structures of self-healable devices. Here, cellulose nanofiber/poly(vinyl alcohol) (CNF/PVA), a biocompatible moisture-inspired self-healable composite, was applied both as the binder in functional layers and the substrate. Various functional layers comprising particular carbon materials and CNF/PVA were patterned on the substrate. A planar structure was beneficial for integration, and the active self-healing ability of the functional layers endowed self-healed e-skins with a higher toughness. Water served as both the only solvent throughout the fabrication process and the trigger of the self-healing process, which avoids the pollution and bioincompatibility caused by the application of noxious additives. Our e-skins could achieve real-time monitoring of whole-body physiological signals and environmental temperature and humidity. Cross-interference between different external stimuli was suppressed through reasonable material selection and structural design. Combined with conventional electronics, data could be transmitted to a nearby smartphone for post-processing. This work provides a previously unexplored strategy for multifunctional e-skins with an excellent practicality.</p><p>Highlights:</p><p>1 A printable multifunctional electronic skin (e-skin) with an excellent self-healing ability was developed via a simple, clean and universally applicable method.<br>2 Water served as both the only solvent throughout the fabrication process and the trigger of the self-healing process. Each e-skin component was biocompatible.<br>3 Combined with conventional electronics, signals collected by the e-skin could be transmitted to smartphones via Bluetooth for post-processing.</p> ER -