High‐Throughput Screening of Self‐Healable Polysulfobetaine Hydrogels and their Applications in Flexible Electronics

Abstract Hydrogels are promising materials in the applications of wound adhesives, wearable electronics, tissue engineering, implantable electronics, etc. The properties of a hydrogel rely strongly on its composition. However, the optimization of hydrogel properties has been a big challenge as increasing numbers of components are added to enhance and synergize its mechanical, biomedical, electrical, and self‐healable properties. Here in this work, it is shown that high‐throughput screening can efficiently and systematically explore the effects of multiple components (at least eight) on the properties of polysulfobetaine hydrogels, as well as provide a useful database for diverse applications. The optimized polysulfobetaine hydrogels that exhibit outstanding self‐healing and mechanical properties, have been obtained by high‐throughput screening. By compositing with poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), intrinsically self‐healable and stretchable conductors are achieved. It is further demonstrated that a polysulfobetaine hydrogel‐based electronic skin, which exhibits exceptionally fast self‐healing capability of the whole device at ambient conditions. This work successfully extends high‐throughput synthetic methodology to the field of hydrogel electronics, as well as demonstrates new directions of healable flexible electronic devices in terms of material development and device design.