Disulfide bond and Diels-Alder reaction bond hybrid polymers with high stretchability, transparency, recyclability, and intrinsic dual healability for skin-like tactile sensing

For next-generation electronics, it is crucial to be able to accurately mimic the nature of human skin and develop skin-inspired materials and devices for electronic skin (e-skin) applications. However, it is a great challenge to design such a materials because they require the complex integration of stretchability, skin adhesiveness, transparency, healability, and tactile sensing. Herein, we present the first dual covalently reversible dynamic bond-based polymer that can be integrated with various functional materials and used as a skin-like sensor. A series of polymers was designed using polypropylene glycol (PPG)-based polyurethane (PU) as the polymer backbone, and these polymers could integrate two types of covalent reversible dynamic bonds, Diels-Alder and disulfide bonds, in one polymer for the first time. Based on our design, a polymer was created with the advantages of high stretchability, fast healing abilities (60 °C, 5 min), skin adhesion, recyclability, high transparency, and tactile sensing abilities. We provide an alternative strategy for the construction of skin-inspired multifunctional materials for e-skin applications. For next-generation electronics, it is crucial to be able to accurately mimic the nature of human skin and develop skin-inspired materials and devices for electronic skin (e-skin) applications.