High-performance supramolecular ionogel synthesized via click chemistry

Abstract

The development of high-strength ionogels is of great significance for high-performance flexible sensing and soft robots. However, the introduction of ionic liquids will cause a decrease in the modulus and strength of ionogels and can cause unnecessary leakage problems. This poses a challenge for designing high-strength ionogels. In this work, based on the design concept of click chemistry, a modular polymer is constructed. The polymer self-assembled a phase-separated microstructure between soft phase and hard phase, exhibiting an ionic liquid-free, flexible, high-strength characteristic. By adjusting the molar ratio of the hard segment and the soft segment, it endows ionogels with various mechanical properties. When the content of hard segment increases from 5mol% to 20mol%, the Young’s modulus of the ionogel increases from 4.37 MPa, 25.17 MPa to 129.94 MPa, the strength increases from 4.34 MPa, 9.67 MPa to 18.39 MPa, and the elongation at break decreases from 1129%, 1063% to 797%, respectively. Meanwhile, the supramolecular ionogel shows good stress-sensing ability and stability, which has promoted the development of high-performance flexible sensing and soft robots.