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Considering the operation reliability of flexible and optical electronics (FOEs) in dynamic and real-world environments, autonomous self-healing electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials with high transparency, good stretchability and excellent tear-resistance are urgently required but always difficult to achieve due to the poor dynamics of their elastic substrates. Herein, we propose a facile strategy to design a highly dynamic polyurea elastomer (PDMS-MPI-HDI) featuring with ultrahigh optical transparency (>94%), ultralow elastic modulus (<1 MPa), high tear-resistant stretchability (800%), and ultrafast autonomous self-healing (100 s for scratch-healing). Taking PDMS-MPI-HDI as a substrate for embedding silver nanowires (Ag NWs), the first transparent, stretchable and self-healable EMI shielding materials (Ag NWs/PDMS-MPI-HDI) are presented. Failure behavior of Ag NWs/PDMS-MPI-HDI is highly tolerant of prefabricated cracks under deformation. Due to the robust interfacial adhesion between Ag NWs and PDMS-MPI-HDI, the fractured Ag NW network can autonomously self-reconstruct during the healing process of PDMS-MPI-HDI substrates, contributing to the complete restoration of EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) and full erasure of scratches at both the resting and stretching states. Besides, Ag NWs/PDMS-MPI-HDI exhibits fast autonomous self-healing at high (60 °C) and low (0 °C) temperatures, and in artificial sweat, which is essential for FOEs applicable in various practical environments.
Sun et al. (Fri,) studied this question.