Versatile ionogels with tailoring performance for strain sensors, temperature alarm and self-powered wearable devices

Ionogels with high stretchability, conductivity, self-healing and self-adhesive performances have shown great application potential in flexible electronics. In this study, a dual-crosslinked ionogel, denoted as APIx, was synthesized, showcasing versatile functionalities contingent on the ionic liquid (IL) content. Notably, API50, featuring high IL content, exhibited exceptional flexibility (1418 %) and conductivity (0.31 S m−1), which conferred upon it exemplary strain-sensing performance, manifesting in rapid responsiveness (50 ms), heightened sensitivity (GF = 3.38), and whole-strain range linearity (R2 = 0.998 at strains ranging from 10 % to 900 %). Leveraging these properties, the API50-based sensor was successfully integrated into an integrated circuit to fabricate diverse electronic devices for applications such as smart switches, signal transmission, and human–machine interaction. Conversely, ionogels with lower IL content displayed noteworthy shape memory characteristics, providing thermal responsiveness suitable for temperature alarm devices. Furthermore, these ionogels were employed to fabricate a triboelectric nanogenerator (API-TENG) exhibiting exceptional electrical output performance (134 V and 1.26 W m−2). This underscores their potential in sustainable power sources and self-powered sensors for monitoring human motions. Collectively, this research introduces a novel strategy to advance the utilization of ionogels in human–machine interaction, energy harvesting devices, human healthcare, and wearable electronic devices.