A bilayer hydrogel actuator based on a microgel island-bridge structure for integrated sensor arrays and intelligent rehabilitation systems

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

S microspheres, endowing the hydrogel with excellent electrical conductivity, photothermal conversion ability and strain-sensing performance. The P-M/P-C hydrogel sensor features a high gauge factor (a GF of up to 5.44), fast response and recovery times (100 ms and 100 ms, respectively), and outstanding cycling stability (no obvious signal degradation after 500 stretching cycles at 0%-100% strain). Benefiting from the island-bridge structure, this work achieves higher strength and larger elongation than those of most reported flexible hydrogel sensors and soft electronic devices. The prepared hydrogel sensor can be adopted to accurately detect human motion signals, and a 4 × 4 hydrogel sensing array is constructed to realize object mass differentiation and spatial localization. Meanwhile, fixed-point thermostatic control and real-time monitoring of the transport process are realized. The proposed bilayer multifunctional hydrogel provides new ideas for further development of smart rehabilitation platforms and intelligent wearable devices.