Self-healing refers to the ability to repair itself spontaneously upon mechanical damages. It is an important survival feature in nature because it increases the lifetime of most living creatures. The self-healing feature is highly desirable for electronics and energy storage devices, which suffer from mechanical failures and short lifetime, including electronic skin, lithium ion batteries, etc. Inspired by nature, my research has successfully introduced the self-healing chemistry to enable high performance electronic skin and lithium ion batteries.By designing and synthesizing a supramolecular hydrogen bonding polymer composite, the first repeatable, room-temperature self-healing electronic sensor skin was demonstrated. A conductivity as high as 40 S/cm was measured for our composite. The composite material is mechanically flexible, and is capable of sensing tactile and flexion forces.The self-healing concept was further introduced into silicon microparticle based high-capacity lithium ion batteries to overcome their short cycling lifetime. Using the self-healing approach, anodes made from low-cost SiMPs (~3�8 �m), for which stable deep galvanostatic cycling was previously impossible, can now have an excellent cycle life when coated with a self-healing polymer. We attain a cycle life ten times longer than state-of-art anodes made from SiMPs and still retain a high capacity (up to ~3,000 mAh/g).With the new chemistry insight obtained and the novel approaches developed, I aspire to carry this research further towards 1) developing new smart electrical polymers for next-generation energy storage, electronics and soft robotics, 2) deciphering the approach to reduce mechanical failures via molecular design. References:[1] B. C.-K. Tee*, C. Wang*, Z. Bao et al., (* equal contribution) Nat. Nanotechnol. , 2012, 7, 825.[2] C. Wang, Z. Bao, et al., Adv. Mater.  2013, 25, 5785.[3] C Wang*, H. Wu*, Y. Cui, Z. Bao et al., (* equal contribution) Nat. Chem.  2013, 5, 1042.

Self-healing chemistry for electronics and energy storage

248th National Meeting (2014)

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