A stretchable alternating current electroluminescent display seamlessly combines the light-emitting capabilities with mechanical compliance, which offers exciting opportunities for applications in wearable gadgets, soft robots, and fashion designs. The widespread adaption to deformable forms of optoelectronics is currently impeded by the tedious and labor-intensive fabrication process. This study reports an efficient and scalable procedure to create a fully screen-printed, multicolor, and stretchable electroluminescent display. The as-prepared device exhibits excellent deformability and low-voltage operation. The practical implementation is demonstrated by creating a wearable sound-synchronized sensing system with an epidermal display responsive to the rhythm of music. The ink formulation and printing procedure developed here pave the way for convenient fabrication of stretchable electronic devices.

Stretchable electronics represents an emerging technology for next-generation smart wearables toward intimate integration with the human body. In contrast with functional devices constructed over elastomer films with limited moisture permeability, a soft electronic textile may represent the ideal skin-attachable platform to achieve long-term wearing comfort. The advancements in this active area largely hinge on a new generation of permeable conductor. Despite its intrinsic mechanical deformability, gallium-based liquid metal typically represents an impenetrable barrier for gases and liquids. In this study, we introduce a liquid metal micromesh on electrospun microfiber textile as a highly permeable and ultrastretchable conductor. The fabrication process involves dropcasting liquid metal onto an elastomeric microfiber textile followed by high-speed rotation to remove the excessive coating. The liquid metal micromesh exhibits low sheet resistance (0.38 Ω/sq), ultrahigh stretchability (>1000% strain), and mechanical durability. The porous morphology enables a high steam permeability and perception of comfort comparable to those of standard textiles. The conformal interface with the skin gives rise to low contact impedance better than that of state-of-the-art Ag/AgCl gel electrodes. The successful implementation of the liquid micromesh conductor in a multifunctional electronic system demonstrates its practical suitability for a broad range of applications in stretchable and wearable electronics.

Liquid metal represents a highly conductive and inherently deformable conductor for the development of stretchable electronics. The widespread implementations of liquid metal towards functional sensors and circuits are currently hindered by the lack of a facile and scalable patterning approach. In this study, we report a fully solution-based process to generate patterned features of the liquid metal conductor. The entire process is carried out under ambient conditions and is generally compatible with various elastomeric substrates. The as-prepared liquid metal feature exhibits high resolution (100 μm), excellent electrical conductivity (4.15 × 104S cm−1), ultrahigh stretchability (1000% tensile strain), and mechanical durability. The practical suitability is demonstrated by the heterogeneous integration of light-emitting diode (LED) chips with liquid metal interconnects for a stretchable and wearable LED array. The solution-based technique reported here is the enabler for the facile patterning of liquid metal features at low cost, which may find a broad range of applications in emerging fields of epidermal sensors, wearable heaters, advanced prosthetics, and soft robotics.

A conductive serpentine mesh of elastomeric nanocomposite is created by selective laser ablation for stretchable electronics, which exhibits strain-invariant conductance, mechanical compliance, and excellent breathability.