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  • Crystal-confined freestanding ionic liquids for reconfigurable and repairable electronics.

Crystal-confined freestanding ionic liquids for reconfigurable and repairable electronics.

Nature communications (2019-02-03)
Naiwei Gao, Yonglin He, Xinglei Tao, Xiao-Qi Xu, Xun Wu, Yapei Wang
ABSTRACT

Liquid sensors composed of ionic liquids are rising as alternatives to solid semiconductors for flexible and self-healing electronics. However, the fluidic nature may give rise to leakage problems in cases of accidental damages. Here, we proposed a liquid sensor based on a binary ionic liquid system, in which a flowing ionic liquid [OMIm]PF6 is confined by another azobenzene-containing ionic liquid crystalline [OMIm]AzoO. Those crystal components provide sufficient pinning capillary force to immobilize fluidic components, leading to a freestanding liquid-like product without the possibility of leakage. In addition to owning ultra-high temperature sensitivity, crystal-confined ionic liquids also combine the performances of both liquid and solid so that it can be stretched, bent, self-healed, and remolded. With respect to the reconfigurable property, this particular class of ionic liquids is exploited as dynamic circuits which can be spatially reorganized or automatically repaired.