Fuente: Journal of applied polymer Lugar: RESEARCH ARTICLE The PSSUM hydrogel exhibits self-healing, conductivity, and strong mechanical performance due to H-bonds interactions. It elongates up to 370% and shows fracture strength between 0.06 and 0.09 MPa under varying strain rates. With conductivity of 9.70 × 10−4 S/cm, it responds to human motion, enabling real-time monitoring for wearable sensors and health applications.

ABSTRACT
Polysaccharide-based hydrogels have significant potential as flexible strain sensors owing to their intrinsic advantages, such as non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Among them, starch is a low-cost and sustainable biopolymer; however, starch-based hydrogels have poor mechanical stability, which limits their practical applications. Due to this limitation, a conductive and stretchable starch-based hydrogel was developed by using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sunitinib malate (SUM). Strong H-bonding interactions were formed among PVA chains, starch chains, and SUM. These interactions of the PSSUM (PVA, starch, SUM) hydrogel have excellent mechanical strength and improved self-healing behavior. Additionally, the PSSUM hydrogel exhibited an electrical conductivity of up to 9.70 × 10−4 S/cm, making it suitable for sensor applications. Its conductivity, stretchability, and self-healing properties are helpful as a strain sensor. Experimental results confirmed that the hydrogel could monitor different human movements such as bending of fingers, wrist, elbow, knee, and neck.