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Tianjin University develops ultra-resistant cold-resistant electronic skin material May 28, 2024 According to Zhonghua Xinwang, a team led by Zhang Lei and Yang Jing from the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University has successfully developed a new type of ultra-resistant cold-resistant electronic skin material. This material enables robotic arms to exhibit high stretchability, self-healing capabilities, and high sensitivity even in extreme cold conditions of -78°C, which holds great significance for China’s polar research efforts. The relevant findings have been published in the international journal Journal of the American Chemical Society. Polar exploration is an important part of human scientific exploration. The Arctic and Antarctic, far from human settlements, preserve the secrets of early life, Earth, and even the solar system. However, their extreme cold poses a great risk to the safety of explorers. The development of polar robots is of great significance for reducing casualties among researchers and exploring unknown and dangerous areas. The “sensing ability” of robots will greatly influence the quality of polar exploration, which led to the development of electronic skin that can endow robots with a sense of touch. The research team designed a class of polydimethylsiloxane-based supramolecular elastomers; by introducing tetrahydrogen bond units into the side chains of these elastomers, they achieved an extremely low glass transition temperature and endowed the material with rapid, reversible dynamic assembly properties, thereby creating flexible electronic skin suitable for use in ultra-low temperature environments. Robotic palms equipped with this type of electronic skin can accurately detect different pressures at -78°C, as well as identify the shape of objects and specific symbols. This electronic skin also has self-repair and self-healing capabilities. Even after being damaged in extremely cold conditions, its sensing capability can be fully restored, enabling it to cope with polar extreme environment research missions. “In 2020, our team developed an all-weather self-healing electronic skin. ”According to Yang Jing, \"Our new generation of electronic skin has been fully upgraded; in addition to its self-healing capability, it can now function in extreme environments as low as -78°C. We are hopeful that this new advancement will find broader applications in China’s polar research efforts as well as in other scientific fields.\" ”