Biomass-Derived Green Cellulose Reinforced PAM Hydrogel for Next-Generation Flexible Electronics.

Abstract

Hydrogels are widely used in microelectronics due to their solution storage and mass transport capabilities, with transport properties and mechanical strengths critical for device performance and durability. To address the poor mechanical performance of polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogels, the deep eutectic solvent sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (DES-NaCMC) is synthesized from wheat straw-derived cellulose via etherification as a functional additive. It possesses a unique aromatic lignin component and significantly enhances the mechanical properties of the PAM hydrogel. More importantly, the incorporation of DES-NaCMC regulates the crystallinity and swelling behavior of the hydrogel and introduces abundant carboxylate (-COO-) groups, thereby strengthening the mass transport within the hydrogel. The resulting micro-direct liquid fuel cell achieves substantially enhanced performance, substantially outperforming the pure PAM system. Additionally, the hydrogel-based strain sensor exhibits high sensitivity and a broad detection range for human-motion monitoring. This work presents a biomass-derived hydrogel platform for advancing next-generation microelectronic devices.