ABSTRACT Conductive hydrogels are emerging as key materials for next‐generation wearable and self‐powered sensing systems due to their intrinsic softness, high stretchability, and skin‐like mechanical compliance. However, achieving long‐term mechanical durability and stable electrical performance requires a balance between softness and tensile strength. Herein, we report a double‐crosslinked conductive hydrogel based on hydrophilic polymers, polyacrylamide, and sodium alginate (PAM/SA), integrated with zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) nanoparticles. For the first time, the multifunctional electromechanical role of ZIF‐8 is exploited within a PAM/SA hydrogel matrix, where hydrogen‐bonding interactions act as reversible physical crosslinks, enhancing conductivity, tensile strength, stretchability, and durability. The optimized 1 wt.% ZIF‐8@PAM/SA hydrogel exhibits an ultrahigh stretchability of 1864%, a toughness of 2940 kJ m − 3 , and strain‐sensing performance with a gauge factor of 0.48. The hydrogel further functions as a soft electrode for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), delivering a power density of 1.16 W m − 2 , sufficient to power approximately 60 light‐emitting diodes. In addition, the multifunctional hydrogel demonstrates excellent performance in tactile sensing, human motion monitoring, physiological signal detection, and handwriting recognition. Therefore, this work highlights the potential of the developed hydrogel for applications in wearable and self‐powered electronic systems.
Potu et al. (2026) studied this question.