8 March 2024 | Ziguang Zhao, Ziquan Cao, Zhixin Wu, Wenxin Du, Xue Meng, Huawei Chen, Yuchen Wu, Lei Jiang, Mingjie Liu
This study introduces a phase-engineering strategy to fabricate bicontinuous vitrimer heterogels (VHGs) with wide-span switchable stiffness and iontronic coordination. VHGs exhibit high mechanical strength, with an elastic modulus of up to 116 MPa, a strain performance exceeding 1000%, and a switchable stiffness ratio surpassing \(5 \times 10^3\). The materials demonstrate highly programmable reprocessing and shape memory morphing due to the ion liquid-enhanced VHG network reconfiguration. The VHG iontronics exhibit bidirectional stiffness-gated piezoresistivity, integrating both positive and negative piezoresistive properties, enhancing the sensor's sophisticated awareness capabilities. The bicontinuous structure of VHGs, integrating stiff vitrimer and soft ion-liquid gel (ILgel) phases, optimizes the materials' programmable properties. The use of specific ion liquids as the ILgel dispersion phase and interfacial catalysts improves the network reconfiguration, enabling highly programmable reprocessing and shape memory effects. These functionalities make VHGs promising for various applications, including smart sensors, soft machines, and bioelectronics.This study introduces a phase-engineering strategy to fabricate bicontinuous vitrimer heterogels (VHGs) with wide-span switchable stiffness and iontronic coordination. VHGs exhibit high mechanical strength, with an elastic modulus of up to 116 MPa, a strain performance exceeding 1000%, and a switchable stiffness ratio surpassing \(5 \times 10^3\). The materials demonstrate highly programmable reprocessing and shape memory morphing due to the ion liquid-enhanced VHG network reconfiguration. The VHG iontronics exhibit bidirectional stiffness-gated piezoresistivity, integrating both positive and negative piezoresistive properties, enhancing the sensor's sophisticated awareness capabilities. The bicontinuous structure of VHGs, integrating stiff vitrimer and soft ion-liquid gel (ILgel) phases, optimizes the materials' programmable properties. The use of specific ion liquids as the ILgel dispersion phase and interfacial catalysts improves the network reconfiguration, enabling highly programmable reprocessing and shape memory effects. These functionalities make VHGs promising for various applications, including smart sensors, soft machines, and bioelectronics.