3D Printable Silicone Rubber for Long-Lasting and Weather-Resistant Wearable Devices

Abstract

Flexible wearable devices based on gels are attracting widespread attentions. However, the stability and fatigue resistance of gels always conflict with their stretchability and conductivity, which severely limit their practical applications. Herein, we propose a flexible gel wearable device based on two networks of thiol–ene and acrylate, exhibiting marvelous flexibility, sensitivity, weather resistance, as well as stability. We use silicone rubber as a cross-linking monomer, and the addition of PC solution containing lithium trifluoride domains the conductivity of the cross-linked polymer. The unique – Si–O– chain of silicone rubber plays a key role in the excellent stability and weather resistance of the silicone rubber, who still maintains good conductivity after exposing outdoors for one month. In addition, our rubber works well within a very large temperature range (−50 °C - 120 °C), which greatly extends the potential applications of gel-based wearable devices. Most significantly, our silicone rubber is 3D printable, which drastically shorten the fabrication time for high-precision complex 3D structures to further enhance the sensitivity of wearable devices. The present study provides the feasibility of making durable and weather-resistant wearable devices working in harsh environment