Summary and Prospect of soft electronic materials and structures

Author：Yixing Pulitai Electronic Materials Co., Ltd   Date：2019-12-12   Sources：en.yxplt.cn   Clicks：64 

Recently, the research team of the University of California, San Diego, published a paper in advanced materials, mainly summarizing and looking forward to the soft electronic materials and their structures:

1. the characteristics of various materials, such as hydrogel, liquid metal, conductive polymer and nanomaterials, which are applied to stretchable electronic devices, are summarized. The related processing methods and representative applications are introduced.

2. The structure design and working mechanism of the device are summarized, including waves / wrinkles, island bridges, textiles, origami, kirigami, cracks, and interlocks. The mechanical design considerations and mechanical properties of various structures are mainly introduced.

3. The current challenges and possible future research directions of stretchable electron are prospected.

According to the classification of whether the surface can be developed into a plane, the surface can be divided into malleable surface and non malleable surface. Malleable surfaces have zero Gaussian curvature and can be expanded into a plane without stretching or compressing. Examples include cylindrical and conical surfaces. This criterion is not met for non malleable surfaces, such as spheres and human body surfaces. By definition, a flexible electronic device can only cover the extensible surface, while the extensibility becomes necessary when the device wants to integrate seamlessly into the non extensible surface. Two strategies can give the device tensile properties: 1) material innovation, through the synthesis of intrinsic or integrated tensile materials; 2) structural design, give the special mechanical structure of the non tensile materials, through the deformation of the material structure to absorb the stress and strain imposed on the device, so as to avoid the failure of the material itself.