Efficient Tuning of Conductive Gel Properties via Branch Engineering

Conductive gels are a class of important soft materials with broad application potential in various emerging fields. To better meet the diverse and high-standard demands of modern materials science, it is crucial to carry out modification research on conductive gels. Branching engineering, which takes polymer topological structure as the core regulatory variable, alters the relevant characteristics of molecular chains and regulates the microstructures and macroscopic properties of gels at the molecular scale, providing a feasible approach to solve this problem. In this study, we systematically investigated the effects of branch length and terminal groups on the structure and properties of a novel conductive gel. Specifically, by regulating the hydrogen bonding interactions within the gel network, the thermal stability of the gel was significantly improved, and its ultraviolet (UV) stimulus responsiveness and conductivity were successfully achieved.