Recent advancements in wearable self-healing polysiloxane materials and wearable sensors

Wearable electronics have increasingly been integrated into modern technology, providing cutting-edge solutions for health monitoring, environmental sensing and interactive applications. Renowned for its excellent flexibility, stability and biocompatibility, polysiloxane has been extensively used in wearable electronics. This comprehensive review delves into the self-healing mechanisms of polysiloxanes, focusing on their construction and the conditions that facilitate dynamic exchanges, particularly hydrogen bonding. We critically evaluate how these interactions influence the flexibility, strength and self-healing abilities of polysiloxanes to assess their feasibility as repairable flexible substrates in wearable electronic devices. Efficient sensing units are embedded in polysiloxane with self-healing properties, allowing wearable devices to recover their electrical performance through the healing process of polysiloxane. Furthermore, this paper explores and projects potential applications of self-healing polysiloxanes in wearable electronics, including flexible strain sensors, nanogenerators for harvesting frictional electricity and perovskite solar cells. • The self-healing mechanisms of polysiloxanes were comprehensively delved. • Special attention is given to the hydrogen bond in self-healing polysiloxanes. • Interactions between substrates and sensing units were taken into consideration to facilitated the healing process. • Potential applications of self-healing polysiloxanes in wearable electronics were explored.