The current challenges of wearable
hydrogel sensors need to be
addressed, especially how they are inevitably frozen at subzero temperature
and are easily damaged. In this work, we present stretchable, antifreezing,
and self-healing hydrogels by introducing Ag/TA@CNCs and l-proline into the guar gum (GG)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hybrid
network. The existence of Ag/TA@CNCs provided enhanced conductivity,
mechanical strength, and self-healing properties. The rupture stress
of the hydrogels improved from 0.45 to 0.69 MPa, and the self-healing
efficiency increased from 71.4% to 88.3%. Benefiting from zwitterionic l-proline as an emerging cryoprotectant, favorable flexibility
and self-healing abilities were also achieved in subzero environments
(the self-healing efficiency could reach 80.8% for 6 h at −15
°C). Resistive-type hydrogel strain sensors exhibited a high
gauge factor (GF = 8.65 at strains of 350–550%) and fast response
time (190 ms), as well as stable sensitivity even at low temperatures.
Also, they could accurately monitor various human movements, including
small (mouth opening and finger bending) and large changes (wrist
bending, elbow bending, leg lifting, and squatting). The nanocomposite
hybrid biomass hydrogels were promising for wearable flexible sensors
with a long service time in a wide temperature range.