Professor Zhao Dawei from LRCM and the Team Led by Professor Yu Haipeng from Northeast Forestry University Have Jointly Published Their Research Findings in Advanced Functional Materials

Professor Zhao Dawei from the Key Laboratory of Featured Resources Chemical Industry and Materials of the Ministry of Education (LRCM) of our university, and Professor Yu Haipeng’s team from Northeast Forestry University, have published a phase of research findings in the internationally renowned journal Advanced Functional Materials under the title “Ultrathin Cellulose Ionogel Devices Through Solvent-Induced Peeling”.

As a natural polysaccharide polymer, cellulose is widely present in biological resources such as wood and bamboo. With the consumption of petrochemical resources and the accompanying environmental, ecological, and health issues, high-quality design and high-value utilization of biomass cellulose and its derivative materials have attracted increasing attention. Building on the team’s previous research on cellulose membrane peeling (Nature Synthesis, 2023, 2(9): 864-872), Professor Zhao Dawei’s team from our university, in collaboration with Professor Yu Haipeng from Northeast Forestry University, has achieved a breakthrough in the rapid (approximately 10 seconds), ultra-thin (with a thickness of 12.46 µm, about 1/9 the thickness of a human hair), and controllable peeling preparation (controllable thickness and morphology) of patterned cellulose ionogel devices. Notably, this preparation method has almost no restrictions on the type and particle size of active substances.

Benefiting from the physical entanglement and hydrogen bonding between active substances (including PEDOT, MOF, MXenes, activated carbon, and Ni powder) and cellulose molecular chains, the obtained patterned ultra-thin devices exhibit stable interface structures (resistant to boiling water and peeling), high mechanical properties (with a tensile strength of 6.5 MPa), high pressure sensitivity (75.82 kPa⁻¹), and low neural impedance (5.83 Ω at 1 kHz). These devices hold great potential in fields such as flexible electronic skin, biomedical health, and neural network repair.

Research on Patterned Construction of Cellulose Ionogels and Induced Peeling for Preparing Ultra-Thin Cellulose Ionogel Devices

Shenyang University of Chemical Technology is the first affiliated unit of this paper. Zhao Yuqiao, a master’s student from the School of Chemical Engineering, is the first author. Zhao Dawei, Yu Haipeng, and Sun Lisha from Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University are the co-corresponding authors of the paper.