Autonomous Self-Healing Magnetoelectric I-Skin from Self-Bonded Deep Eutectic Polymer.

Abstract

Next-generation ionic skin (i-skin) should be self-healing and self-powered, promoting its development toward lightweight, miniaturization, compact, and portable designs. Previously reported self-powered i-skin mostly either lack the ability to self-repair damaged parts or only have self-healing capabilities some components, falling short of achieving complete device self-healability. In this work, a self-bonding strategy is presented to obtain an all-polymerizable deep eutectic solvent (PDES) magnetoelectric i-skin (MIS) that simultaneously achieves self-powering and full-device autonomous self-healability. The three-layered MIS can easily restore mechanical and electrochemical performance at the full-device level without requiring any external stimulus. The developed MIS can be easily configured into various 3D architectures with highly compatible magnetic and conductive components, offering promising potential for the advancement of embodied energy technologies. The present work provides a versatile and user-friendly platform for producing a wide range of intrinsic self-healing multi-layered devices made from soft materials, with potential applications extending beyond human-machine interfaces and artificial intelligence.