Vinyltrimethoxysilane-Functionalized Zinc Oxide-Mediated Green Photopolymerization of Multinetwork Conductive Eutectogels for Wearable Strain Sensing

In this system, VTMS-ZnO serves as the photoactive inorganic component to induce the in situ copolymerization of HEMA and NaSS under UV irradiation. Moreover, the surface vinyl groups of VTMS-ZnO participate in the network construction, allowing the ZnO nanoparticles to be embedded into the polymer network as hybrid nodes. The optimized H_0.2 eutectogel demonstrated an elongation at break of approximately 1000%, a toughness of 96.96 kJ m^–3, an ionic conductivity of 78.2 mS m^–1, a gauge factor of 0.270, and an adhesion strength of 6.11 kPa on paper.

It maintained stable sensing performance over 150 cycles at 10% strain, remained flexible after storage at −53 °C for 12 h, and retained over 50% of its initial mass at 37 °C and 35% relative humidity for 11 days. This comprehensive performance enables the eutectogels to serve as versatile wearable sensors for the real-time monitoring of human movements and weak physiological signals (response time of 0.82 s). In addition, the eutectogel exhibited inhibitory activity against Escherichia coli.

Our work sheds light on a feasible and eco-friendly strategy for customizing multifunctional eutectogels, paving the way for innovative flexible wearable devices.