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High precision patternable liquid metal based conductor and adhesive substrate enabled stretchable hybrid systems

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Abstract

Stretchable hybrid systems have been attracting tremendous attention for their essential role in soft robotics, on-skin electronics, and implantable devices. Both rigid and soft functional modules are typically required in those devices. Consequently, ensuring stable electrical contact between rigid and soft modules is a vital part. Here, we propose a simple, universal, and scalable strategy for the stretchable hybrid system through a highly precise printable liquid metal particle-based conductor and adhesive fluorine rubber substrate. The properties of liquid metal particle-based conductors could be easily tuned to realize high-precision patterning, large-scale printing, and the ability to print on various substrates. Additionally, the fluorine rubber substrate could form strong interfacial adhesion with various components and materials through simply pressing and heating, hence enabling stable electrical contact. Furthermore, we prepared a stretchable hybrid light-emitting diode (LED) display system and employed it in on-skin visualization of pressure levels, which perfectly combined rigid and soft modules, thus demonstrating the promising potential applications in complex multifunctional stretchable hybrid systems for emerging technologies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52125205, U20A20166, and 52192614), National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2021YFB3200302 and 2021YFB3200304), Natural Science Foundation of Bei**g Municipality (No. 2222088), Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (No. KQTD20170810105439418), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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  1. Runhui Zhou and Jiaoya Huang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Bei**g Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Bei**g Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 101400, China

    Runhui Zhou, Jiaoya Huang, Zemin Li & Caofeng Pan

  2. School of Nanoscience and Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Runhui Zhou, Zemin Li & Caofeng Pan

  3. Center on Nanoenergy Research, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China

    Yushu Wang & Ziyu Chen

  4. Institute of Atomic Manufacturing, Beihang University, Bei**g, 100191, China

    Caofeng Pan

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  1. Runhui Zhou
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  3. Zemin Li
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Correspondence to Caofeng Pan.

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Zhou, R., Huang, J., Li, Z. et al. High precision patternable liquid metal based conductor and adhesive substrate enabled stretchable hybrid systems. Nano Res. 17, 5595–5603 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6516-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6516-6

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