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Highly Stable and Stretchable Conductive Films through Thermal‐Radiation‐Assisted Metal Encapsulation
Author(s) -
Liu Zhiyuan,
Wang Hui,
Huang Pingao,
Huang Jianping,
Zhang Yu,
Wang Yuanyuan,
Yu Mei,
Chen Shixiong,
Qi Dianpeng,
Wang Ting,
Jiang Ying,
Chen Geng,
Hu Guoyu,
Li Wenlong,
Yu Jiancan,
Luo Yifei,
Loh Xian Jun,
Liedberg Bo,
Li Guanglin,
Chen Xiaodong
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201901360
Subject(s) - materials science , electrical conductor , stretchable electronics , polydimethylsiloxane , conductor , fabrication , nanotechnology , wafer , adhesive , interlocking , polymer , composite material , optoelectronics , electronics , layer (electronics) , mechanical engineering , medicine , chemistry , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering
Stretchable conductors are the basic units of advanced flexible electronic devices, such as skin‐like sensors, stretchable batteries and soft actuators. Current fabrication strategies are mainly focused on the stretchability of the conductor with less emphasis on the huge mismatch of the conductive material and polymeric substrate, which results in stability issues during long‐term use. Thermal‐radiation‐assisted metal encapsulation is reported to construct an interlocking layer between polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and gold by employing a semipolymerized PDMS substrate to encapsulate the gold clusters/atoms during thermal deposition. The stability of the stretchable conductor is significantly enhanced based on the interlocking effect of metal and polymer, with high interfacial adhesion (>2 MPa) and cyclic stability (>10 000 cycles). Also, the conductor exhibits superior properties such as high stretchability (>130%) and large active surface area (>5:1 effective surface area/geometrical area). It is noted that this method can be easily used to fabricate such a stretchable conductor in a wafer‐scale format through a one‐step process. As a proof of concept, both long‐term implantation in an animal model to monitor intramuscular electric signals and on human skin for detection of biosignals are demonstrated. This design approach brings about a new perspective on the exploration of stretchable conductors for biomedical applications.