Liquid metal-based soft, hermetic, and wireless-communicable seals for stretchable systems

Abstract

Soft materials tend to be highly permeable to gases, making it difficult to create stretchable hermetic seals. With the integration of spacers, we demonstrate the use of liquid metals, which show both metallic and fluidic properties, as stretchable hermetic seals. Such soft seals are used in both a stretchable battery and a stretchable heat transfer system that involve volatile fluids, including water and organic fluids. The capacity retention of the battery was ~72.5% after 500 cycles, and the sealed heat transfer system showed an increased thermal conductivity of approximately 309 watts per meter-kelvin while strained and heated. Furthermore, with the incorporation of a signal transmission window, we demonstrated wireless communication through such seals. This work provides a route to create stretchable yet hermetic packaging design solutions for soft devices.

Electrochromic-Induced Rechargeable Aqueous Batteries: An Integrated Multifunctional System for Cross-Domain Applications

“…In addition, suitable packaging materials provide oxygen- and water-proof, ensuring the high stability of MERABs. Particularly, emerging liquid metals (LMs) possess both metallic and fluidic properties, which shall provide an opportunity for MERABs to achieve the desired stretchable and hermetic sealing [ 161 ].

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Bio‐Inspired Differential Capillary Migration of Aqueous Liquid Metal Ink for Rapid Fabrication of High‐Precision Monolayer and Multilayer Circuits

“…Emerging electronic gadgets including seals, [ 1 ] medical device, [ 2 ] conductors, [ 3 ] wearables, [ 4 ] batteries, [ 5 ] smart sensors, [ 6 ] and nanogenerators [ 7 ] have increased the demand for flexible, highly accurate, and stretchable conductive microstructures. Liquid metals like gallium and its alloys, which have great conductivity and flexibility, are superb candidates when developing elastic microstructures.…”

Gallium Liquid Metal: Nanotoolbox for Antimicrobial Applications

“…48,49 The former occurs nearly instantaneously in the presence of air to form a ∼3 nm thick native oxide layer that does not become much thicker with time (i.e., it is passivating and an excellent gas barrier). 50 In contrast, the reaction with water is slower but less passivating. Thus, the formation of GaOOH is a consideration when using GaLM particles within aqueous biological systems.…”