An Electrically and Mechanically Autonomic Self-healing Hybrid Hydrogel with Tough and Thermoplastic Properties

Conductive hydrogels are a class of composite materials that usually comprise hydrated polymers and conductive materials. Practical application requires the conductive hydrogels to have various properties such as high conductivity, toughness, self-healing, facile processing ability, and so on. Although challenging to have all the above-mentioned properties, a composite material composed of polymer hydrogel with embedded Au nanoparticles (i.e., P­(NaSS)/P­(VBIm-Cl)/PVA@Au) was found to show the comprehensive properties above in this paper. For example, P­(NaSS)/P­(VBIm-Cl)/PVA@Au exhibits mechanical and electrical self-healing properties at ambient conditions. In addition, P­(NaSS)/P­(VBIm-Cl)/PVA@Au is tough and thermoplastic, potentially making it useful for a variety of applications.