One-step preparation of a highly transparent, stretchable and conductive ionic nanocomposite hydrogel

The high-performance ionic hydrogel is a promising stretchable electronic material. The poor stability of nanoclay dispersions in the presence of ionic species leads to failure in preparing transparent ionic nanocomposite hydrogels with the required strength. In this work, a novel ionic nanoclay hydrogel (INC) with high transparency and excellent stretchability was fabricated by a one-step method in the presence of organic salt trisodium citrate. The hydrogels achieved electrical conductivity of 2.2 S m−1, stretchability of up to 1058% and light transmittance about 93%. The hydrogels pave a new way to the design of the transparent stretchable electrode.