Highly Stretchable or Transparent Conductor Fabrication by a Hierarchical Multiscale Hybrid Nanocomposite

As is frequently seen in sci‐fi movies, future electronics are expected to ultimately be in the form of wearable electronics. To realize wearable electronics, the electric components should be soft, flexible, and even stretchable to be human‐friendly. An important step is presented toward realization of wearable electronics by developing a hierarchical multiscale hybrid nanocomposite for highly flexible, stretchable, or transparent conductors. The hybrid nanocomposite combines the enhanced mechanical compliance, electrical conductivity, and optical transparency of small CNTs (d ≈ 1.2 nm) and the enhanced electrical conductivity of relatively bigger Ag nanowire (d ≈ 150 nm) backbone to provide efficient multiscale electron transport path with Ag nanowire current backbone collector and local CNT percolation network. The highly elastic hybrid nanocomposite conductors and highly transparent flexible conductors can be mounted on any non‐planar or soft surfaces to realize human‐friendly electronics interface for future wearable electronics.     

Flexible Electronics: Stretchable Electrodes and Their Future

Flexible electronics, as an emerging and exciting research field, have brought great interest to the issue of how to make flexible electronic materials that offer both durability and high performance at strained states. With the advent of on‐body wearable and implantable electronics, as well as increasing demands for human‐friendly intelligent soft robots, enormous effort is being expended on highly flexible functional materials, especially stretchable electrodes, by both the academic and industrial communities. Among different deformation modes, stretchability is the most demanding and challenging. This review focuses on the latest advances in stretchable transparent electrodes based on a new design strategy known as kirigami (the art of paper cutting) and investigates the recent progress on novel applications, including skin‐like electronics, implantable biodegradable devices, and bioinspired soft robotics. By comparing the optoelectrical and mechanical properties of different electrode materials, some of the most important outcomes with comments on their merits and demerits are raised. Key design considerations in terms of geometries, substrates, and adhesion are also discussed, offering insights into the universal strategies for engineering stretchable electrodes regardless of the material. It is suggested that highly stretchable and biocompatible electrodes will greatly boost the development of next‐generation intelligent life‐like electronics.     

All‐Printed Flexible and Stretchable Electronics with Pressing or Freezing Activatable Liquid‐Metal–Silicone Inks

Liquid‐metal (LM)‐based flexible and stretchable electronics have attracted widespread interest in wearable computing, human–machine interaction, and soft robotics. However, many current examples are one‐off prototypes, whereas future implementation requires mass production. To address this critical challenge, an integrated multimaterial 3D printing process composed of direct ink writing (DIW) of sealing silicone elastomer and special LM‐silicone (LMS) inks for manufacturing high‐performance LM‐based flexible and stretchable electronics is presented. The LMS ink is a concentrated mixture of LM microdroplets and silicone elastomer and exhibits excellent printability for DIW printing. Guided by a verified theoretical model, a printing process with high resolution and high speed can be easily implemented. Although LMS is not initially conductive, it can be activated by pressing or freezing. Activated LMS possesses good conductivity and significant electrical response to strain. Owing to LMS's unique structure, LMS‐embedded flexible electronics exhibit great damage mitigation, in that no leaking occurs even when damaged. To demonstrate the flexibility of this process in fabricating LM‐based flexible electronics, multilayer soft circuits, strain sensors, and data gloves are printed and investigated. Notably, utilizing LMS's unique activating property, some functional circuits such as one‐time pressing/freezing‐on switch can be printed without any structural design.     

Highly Stretchable Bilayer Lattice Structures That Elongate via In‐Plane Deformation

Many emerging technologies such as wearable batteries and electronics require stretchable functional structures made from intrinsically less deformable materials. The stretch capability of most demonstrated stretchable structures often relies on either initially out‐of‐plane configurations or the out‐of‐plane deflection of planar patterns. Such nonplanar features may dramatically increase the surface roughness, cause poor adhesion and adverse effects on subsequent multilayer processing, thereby posing a great challenge for flexible devices that require smooth surfaces (e.g., transparent electrodes in which flat‐surface‐enabled high optical transmittance is preferred). Inspired by the lamellar layouts of collagenous tissues, this work demonstrates a planar bilayer lattice structure, which can elongate substantially via only in‐plane motion and thus maintain a smooth surfaces. The constructed bilayer lattice exhibits a large stretchability up to 360%, far beyond the inherent deformability of the brittle constituent material and comparable to that of state‐of‐the‐art stretchable structures for flexible electronics. A stretchable conductor employing the bilayer lattice designs can remain electrically conductive at a strain of 300%, demonstrating the functionality and potential applications of the bilayer lattice structure. This design opens a new avenue for the development of stretchable structures that demand smooth surfaces.     

Stretchable and Flexible Buckypaper‐Based Lactate Biofuel Cell for Wearable Electronics

This work demonstrates a stretchable and flexible lactate/O₂ biofuel cell (BFC) using buckypaper (BP) composed of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes as the electrode material. Free‐standing BP, functionalized with a pyrene‐polynorbornene homopolymer, is fabricated as the immobilization matrix for lactate oxidase (LOx) at the anode and bilirubin oxidase at the cathode. This biofuel cell delivers an open circuit voltage of 0.74 V and a high‐power density of 520 µW cm^?2. The functionalized BP electrodes are assembled onto a stretchable screen‐printed current collector with an “island–bridge” configuration, which ensures conformal contact between the wearable BFC and the human body and endows the BFC with excellent performance stability under stretching condition. When applied to the arm of the volunteer, the BFC can generate a maximum power of 450 µW. When connected with a voltage booster, the on‐body BFC is able to power a light emitting diode under both pulse discharge and continuous discharge modes during exercise. This demonstrates the promising potential of the flexible BP‐based BFC as a self‐sustained power source for next‐generation wearable electronics.     

A Highly Stretchable Fiber‐Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self‐Powered Wearable Electronics

The development of flexible and stretchable electronics has attracted intensive attention for their promising applications in next‐generation wearable functional devices. However, these stretchable devices that are made in a conventional planar format have largely hindered their development, especially in highly stretchable conditions. Herein, a novel type of highly stretchable, fiber‐based triboelectric nanogenerator (fiber‐like TENG) for power generation is developed. Owing to the advanced structural designs, including the fiber‐convolving fiber and the stretchable electrodes on elastic silicone rubber fiber, the fiber‐like TENG can be operated at stretching mode with high strains up to 70% and is demonstrated for a broad range of applications such as powering a commercial capacitor, LCD screen, digital watch/calculator, and self‐powered acceleration sensor. This work verifies the promising potential of a novel fiber‐based structure for both power generation and self‐powered sensing.     

The Era of Digital Health: A Review of Portable and Wearable Affinity Biosensors

Digital health facilitated by wearable/portable electronics and big data analytics holds great potential in empowering patients with real‐time diagnostics tools and information. The detection of a majority of biomarkers at trace levels in body fluids using mobile health (mHealth) devices requires bioaffinity sensors that rely on “bioreceptors” for specific recognition. Portable point‐of‐care testing (POCT) bioaffinity sensors have demonstrated their broad utility for diverse applications ranging from health monitoring to disease diagnosis and management. In addition, flexible and stretchable electronics‐enabled wearable platforms have emerged in the past decade as an interesting approach in the ambulatory collection of real‐time data. Herein, the technological advancements of mHealth bioaffinity sensors evolved from laboratory assays to portable POCT devices, and to wearable electronics, are synthesized. The involved recognition events in the mHealth affinity biosensors enabled by bioreceptors (e.g., antibodies, DNAs, aptamers, and molecularly imprinted polymers) are discussed along with their transduction mechanisms (e.g., electrochemical and optical) and system‐level integration technologies. Finally, an outlook of the field is provided and key technological bottlenecks to overcome identified, in order to achieve a new sensing paradigm in wearable bioaffinity platforms.     

Wearable Force Touch Sensor Array Using a Flexible and Transparent Electrode

Transparent electrodes have been widely used for various electronics and optoelectronics, including flexible ones. Many nanomaterial‐based electrodes, in particular 1D and 2D nanomaterials, have been proposed as next‐generation transparent and flexible electrodes. However, their transparency, conductivity, large‐area uniformity, and sometimes cost are not yet sufficient to replace indium tin oxide (ITO). Furthermore, the conventional ITO is quite rigid and susceptible to mechanical fractures under deformations (e.g., bending, folding). In this study, the authors report new advances in the design, fabrication, and integration of wearable and transparent force touch (touch and pressure) sensors by exploiting the previous efforts in stretchable electronics as well as novel ideas in the transparent and flexible electrode. The optical and mechanical experiment, along with simulation results, exhibit the excellent transparency, conductivity, uniformity, and flexibility of the proposed epoxy‐copper‐ITO (ECI) multilayer electrode. By using this multi‐layered ECI electrode, the authors present a wearable and transparent force touch sensor array, which is multiplexed by Si nanomembrane p‐i‐n junction‐type (PIN) diodes and integrated on the skin‐mounted quantum dot light‐emitting diodes. This novel integrated system is successfully applied as a wearable human–machine interface (HMI) to control a drone wirelessly. These advances in novel material structures and system‐level integration strategies create new opportunities in wearable smart displays.     

Facile and Rapid Method for Fabricating Liquid Metal Electrodes with Highly Precise Patterns via One‐Step Coating

Gallium‐based alloys, which are virtually non‐toxic liquid metals at room temperature, are considered highly promising electrode materials for state‐of‐the‐art electronics with new form factors. Herein, a facile and rapid method to fabricate liquid metal electrodes with highly precise patterns via a one‐step coating is presented. For this work, polymeric stencil masks with dual structures, comprising upper and lower structures for injecting and molding the liquid metal, respectively, are used for direct patterning of the liquid metal via spray deposition for few seconds, enabling the formation of complex and minute patterns including long thin lines and hollow forms. This method can be adapted to 3D substrates of various materials without any surface treatment, owing to the intrinsic adhesive and flexible properties of the polymeric masks ensuring conformal contact with non‐flat surfaces, and is also expected to be applicable to sub‐micron patterns. In addition, a number of highly flexible/stretchable electronic applications, exhibiting no change in electrical conductivity upon consecutive structural deformations, are demonstrated on various substrates including human skin. It is anticipated that these results will not only spur the further development of flexible/stretchable electronics, but also significantly contribute to the innovative on‐site fabrication of wearable electronics with high durability.     

Reversible Crumpling of 2D Titanium Carbide (MXene) Nanocoatings for Stretchable Electromagnetic Shielding and Wearable Wireless Communication

In the emerging Internet of Things, stretchable antennas can facilitate wireless communication between wearable and mobile electronic devices around the body. The proliferation of wireless devices transmitting near the human body also raises interference and safety concerns that demand stretchable materials capable of shielding electromagnetic interference (EMI). Here, an ultrastretchable conductor is fabricated by depositing a crumple‐textured coating composed of 2D Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets (MXene) and single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) onto latex, which can be fashioned into high‐performance wearable antennas and EMI shields. The resulting MXene‐SWNT (S‐MXene)/latex devices are able to sustain up to an 800% areal strain and exhibit strain‐insensitive resistance profiles during a 500‐cycle fatigue test. A single layer of stretchable S‐MXene conductors demonstrate a strain‐invariant EMI shielding performance of ≈30 dB up to 800% areal strain, and the shielding performance is further improved to ≈47 and ≈52 dB by stacking 5 and 10 layers of S‐MXene conductors, respectively. Additionally, a stretchable S‐MXene dipole antenna is fabricated, which can be uniaxially stretched to 150% with unaffected reflected power <0.1%. By integrating S‐MXene EMI shields with stretchable S‐MXene antennas, a wearable wireless system is finally demonstrated that provides mechanically stable wireless transmission while attenuating EM absorption by the human body.     

Stretchable Twisted‐Pair Transmission Lines for Microwave Frequency Wearable Electronics

Stretchable electrical interconnects based on serpentines combined with elastic materials are utilized in various classes of wearable electronics. However, such interconnects are primarily for direct current or low‐frequency signals and incompatible with microwave electronics that enable wireless communication. In this paper, design and fabrication procedures are described for stretchable transmission line capable of delivering microwave signals. The stretchable transmission line has twisted‐pair design integrated into thin‐film serpentine microstructure to minimize electromagnetic interference, such that the line's performance is minimally affected by the environment in close proximity, allowing its use in thin‐film bioelectronics, such as the epidermal electronic system. Detailed analysis, simulations, and experimental results show that the stretchable transmission line has negligible changes in performance when stretched and is operable on skin through suppressed radiated emission achieved with the twisted‐pair geometry. Furthermore, stretchable microwave low‐pass filter and band‐stop filter are demonstrated using the twisted‐pair structure to show the feasibility of the transmission lines as stretchable passive components. These concepts form the basic elements used in the design of stretchable microwave components, circuits, and subsystems performing important radio frequency functionalities, which can apply to many types of stretchable bioelectronics for radio transmitters and receivers.     

A Microfluidic,Reversibly Stretchable,Large‐Area Wireless Strain Sensor

This article describes the implementation and characterization of a new self‐contained large‐area wireless strain sensor, operating around 1.5 GHz, based on the concept of multi‐layer microfluidic stretchable radiofrequency electronics (μFSRFEs). Compared to existing solutions, the presented integrated strain sensor is capable of remotely detecting repeated high tensile dynamic strains of up to 15% over very large surfaces or movable parts, and gets rid of all hardwiring to external storage or data processing equipment. Unlike conventional electronic devices, the major part of the sensor is a mechanically reconfigurable and reversibly deformable patch antenna, which consists of two layers of liquid metal alloy filled microfluidic channels in a silicone elastomer. A simplified radiofrequency (RF) transmitter composed of miniaturized rigid active integrated circuits (ICs) associated with discrete passive components was assembled on a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) and then heterogeneously integrated to the antenna. The elastic patch antenna can withstand repeated mechanical stretches while still maintaining its electrical function to some extent, and return to its original state after removal of the stress. Additionally, its electrical characteristics at frequency of operation are highly sensitive to mechanical strains. Consequently, not only is this antenna a radiator for transmitting and receiving RF signals like any other conventional antennas, but also acts as a reversible large‐area strain sensor in the integrated device. Good electrical performance of the standalone antenna and the RF transmitter sub‐module was respectively verified by experiments. Furthermore, a personal computer (PC)‐assisted RF receiver for receiving and processing the measured data was also designed, implemented, and evaluated. In the real‐life demonstration, the integrated strain sensor successfully monitored periodically repeated human body motion, and wirelessly transmitted the measured data to the custom‐designed receiver at a distance of 5m in real‐time.     

Body Heat Powered Wirelessly Wearable System for Real-time Physiological and Biochemical Monitoring

Through harvesting energy from the environment or human body, self-power wearable electronics have an opportunity to break through the limitations of battery supply and achieving long-term continuous operation. Here, a wireless wearable monitoring system driven entirely by body heat is implemented. Based on the principle of maximizing heat utilization, while optimizing internal resistance and heat dissipation, the stretchable TEG improves the power density of previous similar devices from only a few microwatts per square centimeter to tens and makes it possible to continuously drive wireless wearable electronic systems. Furthermore, ceaseless self-power energy gives wearable electronics unparalleled continuous working ability, which can realize the tracking and monitoring of biochemical and physiological indicators at different time scale. A practical system demonstrates the ability to real-time monitor heart rate, sweat ingredient and body motion at a high sampling rate. This study marks an important advance of self-powered wearable electronics for wirelessly real-time healthy monitoring.     

Soft Wearable Systems for Colorimetric and Electrochemical Analysis of Biofluids

Wearable monitoring systems provide valuable insights about the state of wellness, performance, and progression of diseases. Although conventional wearable systems have been effective in measuring a few key biophysical markers, they offer limited insights into biochemical activity and are otherwise cumbersome in ambulatory modes of use, relying on wired connections, mechanical straps, and bulky electronics. Recent advances in skin‐interfaced microfluidics, stretchable/flexible electronics, and mechanics have created new wearable systems with capabilities in real‐time, noninvasive analysis of sweat biochemistry in combination with biophysical metrics. Here, the latest technologies in multifunctional sweat sensing systems are presented with a focus on novel microfluidic designs, fully‐integrated wireless electrochemical sensors, and hybrid biochemical/biophysical sensing capabilities, creating real‐time physiological insights.     

Stretchable and Shape-Adaptable Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Biocompatible Liquid Electrolyte for Biomechanical Energy Harvesting and Wearable Human–Machine Interaction

The significant demand of sustainable power sources has been triggered by the development of wearable electronics (e.g., electronic skin, human health monitors, and intelligent robotics). However, tensile strain limitation and low conformability of existing power sources cannot match their development. Herein, a stretchable and shape-adaptable liquid-based single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (LS-TENG) based on potassium iodide and glycerol (KI-Gly) liquid electrolyte as work electrode is developed for harvesting human motion energy to power wearable electronics. The LS-TENG demonstrates high output performances (open-circuit voltage of 300 V, short-circuit current density of 17.5 mA m^–2, and maximum output power of 2.0 W m^–2) and maintains the stable output performances without deterioration under 250% tension stretching and after 10 000 cycles of repeated contact-separation motion. Moreover, the LS-TENG can harvest biomechanical energy, including arm shaking, human walking, and hand tapping, to power commercial electronics without extra power sources. The LS-TENG attached on different joints of body enables to work as self-powered human motion monitor. Furthermore, a flexible touch panel based on the LS-TENG combined with a microcontroller is explored for human–machine interactions. Consequently, the stretchable and shape-adaptable LS-TENG based on KI-Gly electrolyte would act as an exciting platform for biomechanical energy harvesting and wearable human–machine interaction.     

Cellular Polypropylene Piezoelectret for Human Body Energy Harvesting and Health Monitoring

Self‐powered and wearable electronics, which are away from the problems of batteries, can provide the sustainable and comfortable interactive service for people. In this work, cellular polypropylene piezoelectret, which is with excellent physical and electrical properties, is utilized to build the human body energy harvesting and self‐powered human health monitoring systems. The cellular polypropylene piezoelectret flexible generator can reach a maximum peak power density of ≈52.8 mW m^?2. Simultaneously, self‐powered human body biological signals detecting sensors are demonstrated to detect the human physiological signals, such as coughing action and arterial pulses. This study strongly indicates the great compatibility and potential applications in human healthy monitoring may pave a new developing way for portable and wearable electronics systems.     

Stretchable,Skin‐Mountable,and Wearable Strain Sensors and Their Potential Applications: A Review

There is a growing demand for flexible and soft electronic devices. In particular, stretchable, skin‐mountable, and wearable strain sensors are needed for several potential applications including personalized health‐monitoring, human motion detection, human‐machine interfaces, soft robotics, and so forth. This Feature Article presents recent advancements in the development of flexible and stretchable strain sensors. The article shows that highly stretchable strain sensors are successfully being developed by new mechanisms such as disconnection between overlapped nanomaterials, crack propagation in thin films, and tunneling effect, different from traditional strain sensing mechanisms. Strain sensing performances of recently reported strain sensors are comprehensively studied and discussed, showing that appropriate choice of composite structures as well as suitable interaction between functional nanomaterials and polymers are essential for the high performance strain sensing. Next, simulation results of piezoresistivity of stretchable strain sensors by computational models are reported. Finally, potential applications of flexible strain sensors are described. This survey reveals that flexible, skin‐mountable, and wearable strain sensors have potential in diverse applications while several grand challenges have to be still overcome.     

Liquid Metal Based Island‐Bridge Architectures for All Printed Stretchable Electrochemical Devices

The adoption of epidermal electronics into everyday life requires new design and fabrication paradigms, transitioning away from traditional rigid, bulky electronics towards soft devices that adapt with high intimacy to the human body. Here, a new strategy is reported for fabricating achieving highly stretchable “island‐bridge” (IB) electrochemical devices based on thick‐film printing process involving merging the deterministic IB architecture with stress‐enduring composite silver (Ag) inks based on eutectic gallium‐indium particles (EGaInPs) as dynamic electrical anchors within the inside the percolated network. The fabrication of free‐standing soft Ag‐EGaInPs‐based serpentine “bridges” enables the printed microstructures to maintain mechanical and electrical properties under an extreme (≈800%) strain. Coupling these highly stretchable “bridges” with rigid multifunctional “island” electrodes allows the realization of electrochemical devices that can sustain high mechanical deformation while displaying an extremely attractive and stable electrochemical performance. The advantages and practical utility of the new printed Ag‐liquid metal‐based island‐bridge designs are discussed and illustrated using a wearable biofuel cell. Such new scalable and tunable fabrication strategy will allow to incorporate a wide range of materials into a single device towards a wide range of applications in wearable electronics.     

Parachute shape ultra-wideband wearable antenna for remote health care monitoring

Wireless body area networks (WBAN) is used to measure patients' health conditions continuously. Different kinds of sensors are required to measure health conditions. When such types of antennas are used on the human body, they are flexible with the movements. The usage of wearable devices is currently increasing in the biomedical field. The presented wearable antenna is suitable for biomedical applications. The presented ultra-wideband (UWB) flexible parachute shape wearable antenna is fabricated on a jeans textile substrate. The prototype antenna has a −10 dB measured impedance bandwidth of 5800 MHz (7 to 12.8 GHz) with average radiation efficiency of 75.28%. The prototype antenna's size is 40 × 40 mm² (1.32 × 1.32 ${\lambda }_0^2$ at centre frequency 9.9 GHz) and a peak gain of 4.5 dB at 12.33 GHz. The fabricated antenna is suitable for biomedical applications in X-band frequencies and can be implemented with a low-cost manufacturing process. The radiating element is made by conductive copper tape. Muscle-equivalent phantoms are used to analyze the body effect on antenna performance. The radiation effect emitted by the presented antenna on the human body is calculated by the specific absorption rate (SAR) value. The maximum SAR value of the proposed antenna is 1.84 W/kg at 12.33 GHz. This leads to promising results for wearable applications related to remote health care monitoring, such as biotelemetry and mobile health with a sensor-driven approach.     

Self‐Healable and Stretchable Organic Thermoelectric Materials: Electrically Percolated Polymer Nanowires Embedded in Thermoplastic Elastomer Matrix

Self‐healable and stretchable energy‐harvesting materials can provide a new avenue for the realization of self‐powered wearable electronics, including electronic skins, whose main materials are required to be robust to and stable under external damage and severe mechanical stresses. However, thermoelectric (TE) materials showing both self‐healing properties and stretchability have not yet been demonstrated despite their great potential to harvest thermal energy in the human body. As most existing TE materials are either mechanically brittle or unrecoverable after being subjected to damage, a novel approach is necessary for designing such materials. Herein, self‐healable and stretchable TE materials based on all‐organic composite system wherein polymer semiconductor nanowires are p‐doped with a molecular dopant and embedded in a thermoplastic elastomer matrix are reported. The polymer nanowires are electrically percolated in the matrix, and the resulting composite materials exhibit good TE performance. The composites also exhibit both excellent self‐healing properties under mild heat and pressure conditions and good stretchability. It is believed that this work can be a cornerstone for the design of self‐healable and stretchable energy‐harvesting materials as it provides useful guidelines for imparting electrical conductivity to insulating thermoplastic elastomers, which typically possess versatile and useful mechanical properties.