Abstract:
Flexible sensors have demonstrated significant application potential in wearable devices, human-machine interaction, and health monitoring due to their excellent flexibility, lightweight characteristics, and good conformability with moving substrates. Lipoic acid, a natural small molecule containing carboxyl groups and dynamic disulfide bonds in its unique molecular structure, shows promise for constructing novel flexible sensing materials through self-assembly. However, pure poly-lipoic acid polymer networks exhibit metastable states due to the dynamic instability of intermolecular disulfide bonds, limiting their practical applications. The interactions (including hydrogen bonding and electrostatic forces) between ionic liquids and poly-lipoic acid polymer chains can effectively inhibit disulfide bond cleavage, thereby enhancing the performance stability of poly-lipoic acid-based ionogels. This review systematically summarizes various types of poly-lipoic acid-based ionogel flexible sensors,elaborates their application cases in healthcare, smart wearables, and human-machine interaction, thoroughly analyzes current challenges in poly-lipoic acid-based ionogel flexible sensing materials, and provides perspectives on future development directions in this field.