Polyimide/CNTs Ionogel for Application in Photo‐Thermal‐Resistance Response Materials

ABSTRACT Ionogels have inherent ionic conductivity, flexibility, and excellent mechanical properties, which have received increasing attention for their use as mechanical transducers, flexible devices, and optoelectronic sensing applications. However, the reported photo‐thermal‐resistance responsible ionogels are hindered by weak mechanical properties, low ionic conductivity, narrow working temperature range, and inefficient photo‐thermal‐resistance response efficiency. Here, polyimide (PI) ionogels were doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to obtain PI/CNTs ionogels (PI/CNTs‐IG). The resulting PI/CNTs‐IG exhibits excellent mechanical properties (tensile strength ~3.9 MPa, elongation at break ~260%), high thermal stability (~300°C), ionic conductivity (8.1–9.8 mS/cm) and fast photo‐thermal‐resistance response, which can be used as high‐performance photo‐thermal‐resistance responsive materials to meet the demand for highly stable and responsive materials in a wide application range.