Rathul Sangma is a Ph.D. candidate at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and associated with Imec. To mitigate this shortcoming, he has created a pioneering stretchable sensor that demonstrates extraordinary self-healing and multifunctional properties. This cutting-edge technology is capable of self-healing when sliced through the center, returning to almost full performance after mending itself back together.
The polymer used to make this sensor boasts a highly unique chemical bonding technology known as Diels–Alder crosslinks. This mechanism underlies the flexible sensor’s remarkable self-healing capabilities. Once the sensor is severed, the polymer’s fractured bonds turn highly reactive. This endothermic reaction gives the broken bonds an opportunity to re-bond, bringing the material back to its original form. This novel aspect has the potential to enable less intrusive, more reliable, and sustainable future wearable technology.
The healing occurs at ambient temperature and requires about 24 hours. You’re able to reduce the time to a mere four hours. Just put the detection sensor in a laboratory oven set to 60 °C. This flexibility increases the real-world use-case potential of the sensor in a number of environments.
Sangma’s investigations show that the sensor maintains remarkable performance even after extensive cycles of stretching. This reduction resulted in less than 5 percent drift even after 800 cycles of stretch conditions. A stretchable cut sensor, which was stretched repeatedly. It only veered off course by 10 percent.
To test its limits, the sensor was subject to faulty stretching and self-healed up to six times. Even with this, it continued to boost a remarkable 80 percent operational capacity. These new results further demonstrate the material’s durability and resilience. This unique characteristic makes it an ideal solution for applications that are subject to abuse or mechanical failure.
Under such conditions, existing stretchable sensors can break and become unusable and unreliable, which becomes waste,” stated Sangma. The device’s self-healing capabilities overcome these issues, delivering a more reliable option to users.
This study highlights the environment-friendly nature of the sensor’s design. You can get back and reprocess more than 95 percent of the sensor material. This innovation represents a major step toward sustainable, technology-integrated wearables. Sangma noted, “This two-fold healing—in terms of structure and electrical function—is what sets our design apart from the rest.”
Besides self-healing, the novel type of sensor displays impressive durability. Even after catastrophic damage, it still suffers negligible loss of Galinstan, the liquid metal fused into its very bones. After the two halves of the sensor are mechanically fused back together, the oxide barrier is destroyed. This separation improves the sensor’s effective performance.
Sangma observed that this mechanism is strikingly similar to how human veins form clots in response to a breach. This biological parallel only serves to further highlight the biomimicry that drove this technological breakthrough.
The findings from this study were officially published on July 16, in the IEEE Sensors Journal. This release added to its cachet with the scientific community. Intense research and development in materials science and engineering are opening doors to new breakthroughs. Rathul Sangma’s self-healing stretchable sensor is a big step towards developing a truly reliable and sustainable wearable technology.
