Recent Progress of Anti-Freezing, Anti-Drying, and Anti-Swelling Conductive Hydrogels and Their Applications

Hydrogels are soft–wet materials with a hydrophilic three-dimensional network structure offering controllable stretchability, conductivity, and biocompatibility. However, traditional conductive hydrogels only operate in mild environments and exhibit poor environmental tolerance due to their high water content and hydrophilic network, which result in undesirable swelling, susceptibility to freezing at sub-zero temperatures, and structural dehydration through evaporation. The application range of conductive hydrogels is significantly restricted by these limitations. Therefore, developing environmentally tolerant conductive hydrogels (ETCHs) is crucial to increasing the application scope of these materials. In this review, we summarize recent strategies for designing multifunctional conductive hydrogels that possess anti-freezing, anti-drying, and anti-swelling properties. Furthermore, we briefly introduce some of the applications of ETCHs, including wearable sensors, bioelectrodes, soft robots, and wound dressings. The current development status of different types of ETCHs and their limitations are analyzed to further discuss future research directions and development prospects.