Plant Template-Based\nUltra-high Conductivity Multifunctional\nSilver Nanocomposite Transparent Hydrogel for Flexible Wearable Sensors

Conductive hydrogels, widely recognized as flexible sensor\nmaterials\nfor health monitoring, pose a research challenge in selecting suitable\nframeworks and designing multifunctional composites that balance conductivity,\ntransparency, self-healing, and mechanical properties. In this work,\na simple and efficient plant-template method (corn husk) is used to\ngenerate a multifunctional textured hydrogel (PPA) with PEI and PVA\nas the transparent framework, without additional cross-linking agents.\nThe resulting hydrogel exhibits high conductivity (8.56 S/m), excellent\ntransparency (94% @ 550 nm for the nontextured variant), and remarkable\nstretchability (627.1%). Additionally, the PPA hydrogel exhibits remarkable\nself-healing capabilities, achieving a maximum self-healing efficiency\nof 94.68%. To enhance conductivity, AgNWs are applied to the PPA surface\nusing a rod coating method, forming PPA@RCA with a conductivity of\n12.39 S/m. This improvement is attributed to the interactions between\nthe silver-based nanomaterials (AgNWs, AgNPs), Li<sup>+</sup>, and\nthe PEI/PVA framework in PPA@RCA. The flexible wearable strain sensor\nbased on PPA@RCA features a high gauge factor of 3.35 and instantaneous\nresponse characteristics (response time of 195 ms), exhibiting exceptional\nsensitivity and repeatability across diverse strain ranges and external\nstimuli. Therefore, the ultrahigh-conductive textured hydrogel, produced\nthrough a plant-template strategy, demonstrates significant potential\nfor applications in tablet capacitive pens, writing devices, smart\nwearables, and health monitoring.