A highly conductive and electromechanically self-healable gold nanosheet electrode for stretchable electronics

[Display omitted] •Multilayered AuNS films exhibit high conductivity by forming a percolative network.•Electrical healing is achieved with a thin AuNS film on a self-healing polymer.•Strong adhesion of AuNS to the polymer helps reconstruction of the electrical pathway.•The electrode shows mechanical stability over repeated stretching after healing. It is of great importance to develop self-healable and stretchable conductors with good electrical conductivity for durable stretchable electronics, retaining their electromechanical properties after the self-healing process even under various deformation conditions. Here, we demonstrate a novel room-temperature self-healable electrode with high electrical conductivity. This fabricated electrode consists of a multilayered gold nanosheet (AuNS) thin film on top of a highly adhesive elastomer that has a spontaneous self-healing capability based on host-guest interactions. The electrode exhibits a conductivity of over 570 S cm−1 and stretchability of 100% tensile strain. Although the conductive network is located only on the top surface of the polymer, the electrode shows a stable electrical performance up to 60% tensile strain after recovery from full bisection damage. The strong adhesion between the AuNSs and polymer as well as sliding at the AuNS/AuNS interface due to capping ligands help reconstruct the disrupted conductive pathway. A stretchable and self-healable light emitting diode (LED) dot matrix display is demonstrated by using the AuNS electrodes as the interconnections.