Science Daily February 21, 2022
Unlike hydrogel ionic liquids don’t evaporate like water, they are electrically and thermally stable and conduct electricity well, raising interesting opportunities for future applications. An international team of researchers (USA – North Carolina State University, University Nebraska, Australia) has developed a simple one step method for making ionogel. They copolymerized monomers of polyacrylic acid in a solution of ionic liquid using ultraviolet light resulting in a copolymer that incorporates both monomers and the ionic liquid itself. The resulting gel has the stretchability of polyacrylic acid, stronger than the polyacrylamide, and better than cartilage in toughness. It is self-healing and has shape memory properties. Stronger bond between two pieces was achieved by exposing to heat, it can be deformed into a temporary new shape, but it will return to its original shape when exposed to heat. When exposed to a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, the actions took tens of seconds. The properties of the ionogels can be tailored by controlling the ratio of the ingredients during the copolymerization process…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Schematics of three types of ionogels. Credit: Nature Materials (2022)Â