Azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline composites for robust ultraviolet detectors based on conversion of illuminance-mechanical stress-electric signals

Abstract Wearable ultraviolet (UV) detectors have attracted considerable interest in the military and civilian realms. However, semiconductor-based UV are easily interfered by elongation due to elastic modulus incompatibility between rigid semiconductors polymer matrix. Polymer containing responsive moieties seriously suffer from slow response time. Herein, a illuminance–mechanical stress–electric signal conversion has been proposed based on well-defined ionic liquid (IL)-containing crystalline (ILCP) highly polyurethane (TPU) composite fabrics, achieve robust monitoring shielding device with fast time of 5 s. Due electrostatic interactions hydrogen bonds ILs LC networks, ILCP-based can effectively prevent exudation maintain stable performance upon stretching, bending, washing 1000 testing cycles 365 nm irradiation. This work provides generalizable approach toward development full polymer-based wearable electronics soft robots.