Recent progress in self-healable ion gels

Abstract

Ion gels, soft materials that contain ionic liquids (ILs), are promising gel electrolytes for use in electrochemical devices. Due to the recent surge in demand for flexible and wearable devices, highly durable ion gels have attracted significant amounts of attention. In this review, we address recent advances in the development of ion gels that can heal themselves when mechanically damaged. Light- and thermally induced healing of ion gels are discussed as stimuli-responsive healing strategies, after which self-healable ion gels based on supramolecular and dynamic covalent chemistry are addressed. Tough, highly stretchable, and self-healable ion gels have recently been fabricated through the judicious design of polymer nanostructures in ILs in which polymer chains and IL cations and anions interact. The applications of self-healable ion gels to electrochemical devices are also briefly discussed.