Article
Open Access
Advanced hydrogel strain sensors from non-aqueous resins via UV-cured 3D printing
Binbin Guo1,2,†Xiaoteng Chen1,†Hui Ying Yang2,∗Jiaming Bai1,∗
1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing of High-performance Materials, Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
2 Pillar of Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore 487372, Singapore
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • Volume
    Volume 1 Issue 3, 2024
  • Citation
    Guo B, Chen X, Yang HY, Bai J. Advanced hydrogel strain sensors from non-aqueous resins via UV-cured 3D printing. Adv. Manuf. 2024(3):0011, https://doi.org/10.55092/am20240011. 
  • DOI
    10.55092/am20240011
  • Copyright
    Copyright2024 by the authors. Published by ELSP.
Abstract

Hydrogel-based strain sensors have attracted considerable interest in real-time healthcare and motion detection because of their remarkable flexibility, extensibility, and skin-like compatibility. To reduce the cost and accelerate the preparation of hydrogels, digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing technology presents a promising strategy. However, current photosensitive resin systems primarily use aqueous slurries, which slow down the 3D printing process due to high water content. Herein, we selected three non-aqueous resins for hydrogel preparation and adopted a two-step strategy involving UV curing through 3D printing followed by water spraying. We systematically investigated the curing kinetics and rheological properties of resins, as well as water absorption behavior, mechanical characteristics, and tensile-fracture mechanisms of the resulting hydrogels. Our findings established the poly (Nacryloylmorpholine) hydrogel as the reliable substrate material, NaCl aqueous solution was sprayed to endow the hydrogel with promising ionic conductivity and sensing properties. This work paves the way for the rapid fabrication of 3D printed ionically conductive hydrogels from non-aqueous resins.

Keywords

Strain sensor; 3D printing; hydrogel; non-aqueous resins

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