Ultrathin, transparent, and robust self-healing electronic skins for tactile and non-contact sensing

Thin, transparent, and robust self-healing electronic skins (e-skins) enable multifunction in wearable electronics, flexible displays and soft robotics. However, developing healable e-skins that can simultaneously attain sufficient flexibility, high transparency and stable operation is still a challenge. Here, we report an ultrathin, highly transparent and robust self-healing e-skin by introducing an amorphous microphase-separated elastomer, with self-powered tactile and non-contact sensing functions. The 3-μm-thick e-skin exhibits a reduction of two orders of magnitude in thickness compared with previous self-healing devices, while exhibiting a high transparency of over 92% in visible wavelength. The excellent conformability of the e-skin enables seamless attachment onto human skin and generation of electrical signals for energy harvesting and active sensing based on the coupling effect of contact electrification and electrostatic induction. Moreover, the ultrathin e-skin is extremely robust, maintaining the identical electrical output performance after 45,000 bending tests and over 146,000 operational cycles. We finally demonstrate the non-contact control of a smart phone with this multifunctional e-skin as self-powered active sensor, providing a unique future for human-machine interactions.