Recent Advances in 1D Stretchable Electrodes and Devices for Textile and Wearable Electronics: Materials,Fabrications, and Applications

Research on wearable electronic devices that can be directly integrated into daily textiles or clothes has been explosively grown holding great potential for various practical wearable applications. These wearable electronic devices strongly demand 1D electronic devices that are light–weight, weavable, highly flexible, stretchable, and adaptable to comport to frequent deformations during usage in daily life. To this end, the development of 1D electrodes with high stretchability and electrical performance is fundamentally essential. Herein, the recent process of 1D stretchable electrodes for wearable and textile electronics is described, focusing on representative conductive materials, fabrication techniques for 1D stretchable electrodes with high performance, and designs and applications of various 1D stretchable electronic devices. To conclude, discussions are presented regarding limitations and perspectives of current materials and devices in terms of performance and scientific understanding that should be considered for further advances.     

Waterproof,Ultrahigh Areal‐Capacitance,Wearable Supercapacitor Fabrics

High‐performance supercapacitors (SCs) are promising energy storage devices to meet the pressing demand for future wearable applications. Because the surface area of a human body is limited to 2 m², the key challenge in this field is how to realize a high areal capacitance for SCs, while achieving rapid charging, good capacitive retention, flexibility, and waterproofing. To address this challenge, low‐cost materials are used including multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and metallic textiles to fabricate composite fabric electrodes, in which MWCNT and RGO are alternatively vacuum‐filtrated directly onto Ni‐coated cotton fabrics. The composite fabric electrodes display typical electrical double layer capacitor behavior, and reach an ultrahigh areal capacitance up to 6.2 F cm^?2 at a high areal current density of 20 mA cm^?2. All‐solid‐state fabric‐type SC devices made with the composite fabric electrodes and water‐repellent treatment can reach record‐breaking performance of 2.7 F cm^?2 at 20 mA cm^?2 at the first charge–discharge cycle, 3.2 F cm^?2 after 10 000 charge–discharge cycles, zero capacitive decay after 10 000 bending tests, and 10 h continuous underwater operation. The SC devices are easy to assemble into tandem structures and integrate into garments by simple sewing.     

Polymer‐Assisted Metal Deposition (PAMD) for Flexible and Wearable Electronics: Principle,Materials, Printing,and Devices

The rapid development of flexible and wearable electronics favors low‐cost, solution‐processing, and high‐throughput techniques for fabricating metal contacts, interconnects, and electrodes on flexible substrates of different natures. Conventional top‐down printing strategies with metal‐nanoparticle‐formulated inks based on the thermal sintering mechanism often suffer from overheating, rough film surface, low adhesion, and poor metal quality, which are not desirable for most flexible electronic applications. In recent years, a bottom‐up strategy termed as polymer‐assisted metal deposition (PAMD) shows great promise in addressing the abovementioned challenges. Here, a detailed review of the development of PAMD in the past decade is provided, covering the fundamental chemical mechanism, the preparation of various soft and conductive metallic materials, the compatibility to different printing technologies, and the applications for a wide variety of flexible and wearable electronic devices. Finally, the attributes of PAMD in comparison with conventional nanoparticle strategies are summarized and future technological and application potentials are elaborated.     

Stretchable Platinum Network‐Based Transparent Electrodes for Highly Sensitive Wearable Electronics

A platinum network‐based transparent electrode has been fabricated by electrospinning. The unique nanobelt structured electrode demonstrates low sheet resistance (about 16 Ω sq^?1) and high transparency of 80% and excellent flexibility. One of the most interesting demonstrations of this Pt nanobelt electrode is its excellent reversibly resilient characteristic. The electric conductivity of the flexible Pt electrode can recover to its initial value after 160% extending and this performance is repeatable and stable. The good linear relationship between the resistance and strain of the unique structured Pt electrode makes it possible to assemble a wearable high sensitive strain sensor. Present reported Pt nanobelt electrode also reveals potential applications in electrode for flexible fuel cells and highly transparent ultraviolet (UV) sensors.     

Buckled Structures: Fabrication and Applications in Wearable Electronics

Wearable electronics have attracted a tremendous amount of attention due to their many potential applications, such as personalized health monitoring, motion detection, and smart clothing, where electronic devices must conformably form contacts with curvilinear surfaces and undergo large deformations. Structural design and material selection have been the key factors for the development of wearable electronics in the recent decades. As one of the most widely used geometries, buckling structures endow high stretchability, high mechanical durability, and comfortable contact for human–machine interaction via wearable devices. In addition, buckling structures that are derived from natural biosurfaces have high potential for use in cost‐effective and high‐grade wearable electronics. This review provides fundamental insights into buckling fabrication and discusses recent advancements for practical applications of buckled electronics, such as interconnects, sensors, transistors, energy storage, and conversion devices. In addition to the incorporation of desired functions, the simple and consecutive manipulation and advanced structural design of the buckled structures are discussed, which are important for advancing the field of wearable electronics. The remaining challenges and future perspectives for buckled electronics are briefly discussed in the final section.     

Significance of Nanomaterials in Wearables: A Review on Wearable Actuators and Sensors

Together with the evolution of digital health care, the wearable electronics field has evolved rapidly during the past few years and is expected to be expanded even further within the first few years of the next decade. As the next stage of wearables is predicted to move toward integrated wearables, nanomaterials and nanocomposites are in the spotlight of the search for novel concepts for integration. In addition, the conversion of current devices and attachment‐based wearables into integrated technology may involve a significant size reduction while retaining their functional capabilities. Nanomaterial‐based wearable sensors have already marked their presence with a significant distinction while nanomaterial‐based wearable actuators are still at their embryonic stage. This review looks into the contribution of nanomaterials and nanocomposites to wearable technology with a focus on wearable sensors and actuators.     

Printed Electronics Based on Inorganic Semiconductors: From Processes and Materials to Devices

Following the ever‐expanding technological demands, printed electronics has shown palpable potential to create new and commercially viable technologies that will benefit from its unique characteristics, such as, large‐area and wide range of substrate compatibility, conformability and low‐cost. Through the last few decades, printed/solution‐processed field‐effect transistors (FETs) and circuits have witnessed immense research efforts, technological growth and increased commercial interests. Although printing of functional inks comprising organic semiconductors has already been initiated in early 1990s, gradually the attention, at least partially, has been shifted to various forms of inorganic semiconductors, starting from metal chalcogenides, oxides, carbon nanotubes and very recently to graphene and other 2D semiconductors. In this review, the entire domain of printable inorganic semiconductors is considered. In fact, thanks to the continuous development of materials/functional inks and novel design/printing strategies, the inorganic printed semiconductor‐based circuits today have reached an operation frequency up to several hundreds of kilohertz with only a few nanosecond time delays at the individual FET/inverter levels; in this regard, often circuits based on hybrid material systems have been found to be advantageous. At the end, a comparison of relative successes of various printable inorganic semiconductor materials, the remaining challenges and the available future opportunities are summarized.     

Stretchable,Large‐area Organic Electronics

Stretchability will significantly expand the application scope of electronics, particularly large‐area electronics—displays, sensors, and actuators. If arbitrary surfaces and movable parts could be covered with stretchable electronics, which is impossible with conventional electronics, new classes of applications are expected to emerge. A large hurdle is manufacturing electrical wiring with high conductivity, high stretchability, and large‐area compatibility. This Review describes stretchable, large‐area electronics based on organic field‐effect transistors for applications to sensors and displays. First, novel net‐shaped organic transistors are employed to realize stretchable, large‐area sensor networks that detect distributions of pressure and temperature simultaneously. The whole system is functional even when it is stretched by 25%. In order to further improve stretchability, printable elastic conductors are developed by dispersing single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as dopants uniformly in rubbers. Further, we describe integration of printable elastic conductors with organic transistors to construct a rubber‐like stretchable active matrix for large‐area sensor and display applications. Finally, we will discuss the future prospects of stretchable, large‐area electronics with delineating a picture of the next‐generation human/machine interfaces from the aspect of materials science and electronic engineering.     

Advanced Materials for Use in Soft Self‐Healing Devices

Devices integrated with self‐healing ability can benefit from long‐term use as well as enhanced reliability, maintenance and durability. This progress report reviews the developments in the field of self‐healing polymers/composites and wearable devices thereof. One part of the progress report presents and discusses several aspects of the self‐healing materials chemistry (from non‐covalent to reversible covalent‐based mechanisms), as well as the required main approaches used for functionalizing the composites to enhance their electrical conductivity, magnetic, dielectric, electroactive and/or photoactive properties. The second and complementary part of the progress report links the self‐healing materials with partially or fully self‐healing device technologies, including wearable sensors, supercapacitors, solar cells and fabrics. Some of the strong and weak points in the development of each self‐healing device are clearly highlighted and criticized, respectively. Several ideas regarding further improvement of soft self‐healing devices are proposed.     

A Superhydrophobic Smart Coating for Flexible and Wearable Sensing Electronics

Superhydrophobic surfaces have shown versatile applications in waterproofing, self‐cleaning, drag reduction, selective absorption, etc. The most convenient and universally applicable approach to forming superhydrophobic surfaces is by coating; however, currently, superhydrophobic, smart coatings with flexibility and multiple functions for wearable sensing electronics are not yet reported. Here, a highly flexible multifunctional smart coating is fabricated by spray‐coating multiwalled carbon nanotubes dispersed in a thermoplastic elastomer solution, followed by treatment with ethanol. The coatings not only endow various substrate materials with superhydrophobic surfaces, but can also respond to stretching, bending, and torsion—a property useful for flexible sensor applications. The coatings show superior sensitivity (gauge factor of 5.4–80), high resolution (1° of bending), a fast response time (<8 ms), a stable response over 5000 stretching–relaxing cycles, and wide sensing ranges (stretching: over 76%, bending: 0°–140°, torsion: 0–350 rad m^?1). Moreover, multifunctional coatings with thicknesses of only 1 µm can be directly applied to clothing for full‐range and real‐time detection of human motions, which also show extreme repellency to water, acid, and alkali, which helps the sensors to work under wet and corrosive conditions.     

Wearable Textile‐Based Co−Zn Alkaline Microbattery with High Energy Density and Excellent Reliability

Wearable in‐plane Zn‐based microbatteries are considered as promising micropower sources for wearable electronics due to their high capacity, low cost, high safety, and easy integration. However, their applications are severely impeded by inadequate energy density arising from unsatisfactory capacity of cathode and poor cycling stability caused by degradation of electrode materials and Zn dendrite. Additionally, the short‐circuit induced safety issue caused by Zn dendrite is still a roadblock for Zn‐based microbatteries. Herein, a textile‐based Co?Zn microbattery with ultrahigh energy density and excellent cycling stability is demonstrated. Benefiting from the fast electron transport of three‐dimensional (3D) porous Ni‐coated textile and synergistic effect from the hierarchical Co(OH)₂@NiCo layered double hydroxide (LDH) core?shell electrode, the fabricated Co?Zn microbattery with high flexibility delivers superior energy/power densities of 0.17 mWh cm^?2/14.4 mW cm^?2, outperforming most reported micro energy storage devices. Besides, the trench‐type configuration as well as the 3D porous Zn@carbon clothes can avoid the short‐circuit‐induced safety issues, resulting in excellent cycling stability (71% after 800 cycles). The unique core?shell structure and novel configuration provide a brand‐new design strategy for high‐performance wearable in‐plane microdevices.     

Large‐Area All‐Textile Pressure Sensors for Monitoring Human Motion and Physiological Signals

Wearable pressure sensors, which can perceive and respond to environmental stimuli, are essential components of smart textiles. Here, large‐area all‐textile‐based pressure‐sensor arrays are successfully realized on common fabric substrates. The textile sensor unit achieves high sensitivity (14.4 kPa^?1), low detection limit (2 Pa), fast response (≈24 ms), low power consumption (<6 µW), and mechanical stability under harsh deformations. Thanks to these merits, the textile sensor is demonstrated to be able to recognize finger movement, hand gestures, acoustic vibrations, and real‐time pulse wave. Furthermore, large‐area sensor arrays are successfully fabricated on one textile substrate to spatially map tactile stimuli and can be directly incorporated into a fabric garment for stylish designs without sacrifice of comfort, suggesting great potential in smart textiles or wearable electronics.