Adaptable conductive hydrogel-enabled soft electronics

This review provides a concise exploration of the rapidly evolving field of adaptable conductive hydrogel-enabled soft electronics for extreme environments. Hydrogels, recognized for their water-rich network structure and remarkable biocompatibility, hold immense promise for soft electronics due to their excellent flexibility, permeability, biocompatibility, and tunable mechanical and electrical properties. However, when exposed to extreme environments, the significant aqueous content of hydrogels brings about inherent challenges such as icing, water loss, swelling, low adhesion, corrosion, weak mechanical properties, and physical damage, which can severely impair the performance and reliability of hydrogel-enabled soft electronics. This review thoroughly explores the remarkable properties of adaptable conductive hydrogel-enabled soft electronics, such as anti-freezing, anti-drying, anti-swelling, bioadhesive, self-healing, anti-corrosive, stretchable and other desirable characteristics. It then highlights their applications in soft electronics under extreme conditions such as temperature, humidity, harsh solutions, high adhesiveness, physical damage, and mechanical deformations. Despite considerable progress, challenges remain in adaptable conductive hydrogel-enabled soft electronics, particularly in enhancing function and electronics integration, as well as developing effective recycling and degradation mechanisms. This comprehensive overview provides a roadmap for researchers and innovators in this field, offering valuable insights into current advancements and future prospects.