Versatile Stretchable Conductor with Exceptional Resilience and Rapid Rebound Capabilities: Toward Sustainable and Damage-Resistant Soft Electronics

Stretchable conductors (SCs) have garnered significant attention in both academia and industry, owing to their promising applications in flexible electronics. However, achieving a highly resilient and rapidly rebounding SC that enables prompt electrical response to applied strain, while also being fully recyclable and self-healable, remains a challenge. Here, the design and preparation of a high-performance SC based on a small bio-molecule (alpha-Lipoic acid) are reported, using a straightforward, cost-effective, and scalable method. The engineered SC exhibits a approximate to 100% rebound ratio and fast rebound speed (approximate to 0.4 s) under repeated high strains, along with outstanding electrical sensitivity to both deformation and temperature variation. This ensures that the SC possesses high precision and real-time sensing attributes. Moreover, the SC features high optical transparency (>97%), robust reversible adhesion to diverse surfaces (up to 5.0 MPa), efficient room-temperature self-healing properties, and full recyclability. The superior properties of the SC are fundamentally attributed to the installed hierarchical dynamic bonding at the molecular level, which enables continuous energy dissipation and is analyzed through DFT calculations. The developed SC holds great potential for applications in soft electronics and human-machine interfaces.