Researchers from the University of Cambridge have created soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could have various applications such as powering wearable devices and soft robotics. These jelly-like materials, inspired by electric eels, have a layered structure that enables them to deliver electrical current and could potentially be used for medical purposes like drug delivery or treating conditions like epilepsy.
The self-healing jelly batteries demonstrate an unparalleled ability to stretch over ten times their original length while maintaining conductivity, marking the first instance of combining stretchability and conductivity in a single material. These remarkable results have been published in the prestigious journal Science Advances.
Constructed from hydrogels, which are 3D polymer networks predominantly comprised of over 60% water, the jelly batteries rely on reversible on/off interactions that regulate the material’s mechanical properties.
With the capacity to precisely manipulate mechanical characteristics and emulate human tissue properties, hydrogels have emerged as promising candidates for applications in soft robotics and bioelectronics. However, it is imperative for them to possess both conductivity and stretchiness to be viable for these purposes.
“It’s difficult to design a material that is both highly stretchable and highly conductive since those two properties are normally at odds with one another,” said first author Stephen O’Neill from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. “Typically, conductivity decreases when a material is stretched.”
“Normally, hydrogels are made of polymers that have a neutral charge, but if we charge them, they can become conductive,” said co-author Dr Jade McCune, also from the Department of Chemistry. “And by changing the salt component of each gel, we can make them sticky and squish them together in multiple layers, so we can build up a larger energy potential.”
Conventional electronics use inflexible metallic materials with electrons as charge carriers, whereas jelly batteries employ ions as charge carriers, similar to electric eels.
The hydrogels adhere strongly to each other due to reversible bonds that can develop between the various layers using barrel-shaped molecules known as cucurbiturils, which act like molecular handcuffs. The robust bonding between layers, provided by the molecular handcuffs, enables the jelly batteries to be stretched without the layers separating and, importantly, without any loss of conductivity.
The characteristics of the jelly batteries make them a potential option for future utilization in biomedical implants, as they are pliable and conform to human tissue.
“We can customize the mechanical properties of the hydrogels so they match human tissue,” said Professor Oren Scherman, Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, who led the research in collaboration with Professor George Malliaras from the Department of Engineering. “Since they contain no rigid components such as metal, a hydrogel implant would be much less likely to be rejected by the body or cause the build-up of scar tissue.”
The hydrogels not only possess softness but also surprising toughness. They display resilience against squashing without losing their original shape and have the ability to self-heal when damaged.
The research team is looking ahead to conducting experiments involving the hydrogels in living organisms to evaluate their potential for a variety of medical applications.
Funding for this research was provided by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Oren Scherman serves as a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.
Journal reference:
Stephen J. K. O’Neill, Zehuan Huang, Xiaoyi Chen, Renata L. Sala, Jade A. McCune, George G. Malliaras, Oren A. Scherman. Highly stretchable dynamic hydrogels for soft multilayer electronics. Science Advances, 2024; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn5142
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