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Pressure-stamped stretchable electronics using a nanofibre membrane containing semi-embedded liquid metal particles

Nature Electronics (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Stretchable electronic devices are of use in the development of bioelectronics, wearable devices and healthcare monitoring. Liquid-metal-based stretchable devices are of particular interest for such systems but typically require complex manufacturing processes and suffer from poor interfacial adhesion between the liquid metal and polymeric substrates. Here we show that a membrane of electrospun polymer fibres containing semi-embedded liquid metal particles can be used to make stretchable electronics. The liquid metal particles within the fibre network rupture under pressure and fill the gaps in the fibre mesh to form conductive regions. This enables the creation of circuits with high resolution (minimum linewidths of 50 µm) and stability (over 30,000 cycles of 100% strain) using circuit-patterned stamps. The circuits can be integrated with various electronic components to achieve different functions, including square wave signal output, light emission and wireless charging. We used this approach to create sensors for bioelectrical signal monitoring, thus illustrating the biocompatibility and permeability of the membranes. We also show that the liquid-metal-containing fibre membranes can be separated into their individual components and recycled.

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Fig. 1: Schematic diagram illustrating the manufacture of LMNM and the pressure-stamped conductive path.
Fig. 2: Influence of LM particles in TPU nanofibres on the pressure-stamped conductive path.
Fig. 3: Mechanical and electrical properties and stability of LMNM.
Fig. 4: LMNM-based functional circuit and recycling process.
Fig. 5: Luminescent circuits and circular wireless power-transmission circuit based on LMNM.
Fig. 6: Permeability, bioelectric detection and photothermal conversion capabilities.

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Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper. Other data that supports the findings of this study are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11159777 (ref. 45).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21835005 and 52333002 to F.Y.), the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. KYCX23_3231 to S.Z.), the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Sijie Zheng, Xiaowei Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Engineering Laboratory of Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Negative Carbon Technologies College of Chemistry, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Soft Material and New Energy, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Sijie Zheng, Xiaowei Wang, Weizheng Li, Ziyang Liu, Qingning Li & Feng Yan

  2. State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, China

    Feng Yan

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Contributions

S.Z. and F.Y. conceived the concept. F.Y. supervised the project. S.Z. and X.W. conducted the experiments. S.Z. and F.Y. wrote the paper. X.W., W.L., Z.L. and Q.L. participated in optimizing the figures and assisted with material fabrication and characterization. All authors contributed to the analysis and discussion of the data.

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Correspondence to Feng Yan.

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Nature Electronics thanks Swee Ching Tan, Dezhi Wu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Materials, characterization, discussion, and Supplementary Figs. 1–34 and Table 1.

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Zheng, S., Wang, X., Li, W. et al. Pressure-stamped stretchable electronics using a nanofibre membrane containing semi-embedded liquid metal particles. Nat Electron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-024-01194-0

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