Self-sintering liquid metal ink with LAPONITE® for flexible electronics

Wu, Pengcheng; Zhou, Luyu; Lv, Shang; Fu, Jianzhong; He, Yong

doi:10.1039/d0tc06044e

Cited by 26 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…What is more, we found that the force that causes the rupture of the alginate networks can be generated not only externally but also from the inside out. Unlike common hard metals, liquid metals will undergo a phase change from liquid to solid at low temperatures, just like water, leading to volume expansion behavior. ,, Based on this, the volume expansion of LM microdroplets caused by freezing can also squeeze the dehydrated alginate networks wrapped around them and cause the fusion of the LM droplets. The processes of pressing activation and freezing activation circuits are shown in Movies S4 and S5 in the Supporting Information, respectively.…”

Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conventional rigid electronics exhibiting poor flexibility and compliance cannot meet the requirements of advanced wearable devices that usually need to withstand large deformations or work on nonplanar surfaces. , In recent years, gallium-based liquid metals (LMs), as fluid soft materials with superb metallic conductivity, have drawn tremendous attention and have been employed to manufacture flexible electronics, including electronic skin, , energy-harvesting devices, , wearable health monitoring equipment, , 3D circuits and nanotips, , and more. Additionally, unlike toxic mercury, LMs possess negligible toxicity and low vapor pressure, making them ideal conductive components in flexible electronics in close contact with skins. , To date, numerous trials based on additive manufacturing have been adopted to prepare conductive liquid metal patterns for specific electrical functions, including stamp printing, , masked deposition, , inkjet/spray printing, , direct writing, − and so forth. However, limited by its own huge surface tension and strong fluidity, LM tends to aggregate into intermittent low-surface-energy spheres rather than forming desired continuous patterns during processing, , making it challenging to directly pattern pure liquid metal into desired circuits with high resolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Liquid Metal Microgels for Three-Dimensional Printing of Smart Electronic Clothes

et al. 2022

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Gallium-based liquid metals (LMs), with the combination of liquid fluidity and metallic conductivity, are considered ideal conductive components for flexible electronics. However, huge surface tension and poor wettability seriously hinder the patterning of LMs and their wider applications. Herein, a recyclable liquid-metal-microgel (LMM) ink composed of LM droplets encapsulated into alginate microgel shells is proposed. During the mechanical stirring process, the released Ga3+ can cross-link with sodium alginate to form microgels covering the surface of LM droplets, which exhibits shear-thinning performance due to the formation and rupture of hydrogen bonds under different stress conditions, making the LMM ink possess excellent printability and superior adhesion to various substrates. Although patterns printed with the LMM ink are not initially conductive, they can be activated to recover conductivity by microstrain (<5%), pressing, and freezing. Additionally, the activated LMM circuit exhibits superior Joule heating behaviors and electrical performance in further investigation, including excellent conductivity, significant resistance response to strain with small hysteresis, great durability to nonplanar forces, and so forth. Furthermore, smart electronic clothes were fabricated and investigated by directly printing functional circuits on commercial clothes with the LMM ink, which integrate multiple functions, including tactile sensing, motion monitoring, human–computer interaction, and thermal management.

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Section: Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Metal Microgels for Three-Dimensional Printing of Smart Electronic Clothes

et al. 2022

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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“…In addition, the melting point temperature of gallium-based alloys such as gallium indium alloy (EGaIn), gallium tin alloy (EGaSn), and gallium indium tin alloy (EGaInSn, Galinstan) can be regulated by changing the proportion of alloy components. These unique properties of gallium-based LMs make them have wide application potential in soft electronics, ,, flexible devices, , biological devices, , thermal management, , and nuclear industry. , …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7 In addition, the melting point temperature of gallium-based alloys such as gallium indium alloy (EGaIn), 8 gallium tin alloy (EGaSn), and gallium indium tin alloy (EGaInSn, Galinstan) can be regulated by changing the proportion of alloy components. These unique properties of gallium-based LMs make them have wide application potential in soft electronics, 1,9,10 flexible devices, 11,12 biological devices, 13,14 thermal management, 15,16 and nuclear industry. 17,18 Gallium-based LMs are highly susceptible to oxidation when exposed to air, forming a dense thin film of gallium oxide, which prevents further oxidation of internal gallium 1,19 while reducing the surface tension, 20 thermal conductivity, and conductivity of LM.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled Transformation of Liquid Metal Microspheres in Aqueous Solution Triggered by Growth of GaOOH

Ding

et al. 2022

ACS Omega

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Liquid metals (LMs) are playing an increasingly important role in the fields of flexible devices, electronics, and thermal management due to their low melting point and excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, and the transformation of LMs in deionized water has recently received much attention. In this paper, we investigate the transformation process of EGaIn microspheres in deionized water and propose a two-step process of microspherical transformation, whereby the microspheres are first deformed into a spindle shape and then into lamellar nanorods. It is also shown that the growth of GaOOH crystals drives the transformation. Based on this result, EGaIn microspheres with controllable transformation could be prepared, such as spindle or lamellar rod shapes, extending the application area of LMs.

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“…Among these nanomaterials, Laponite (Lap) as a synthetic and biodegradable hydrous magnesium lithium silicate has the empirical formula Na + 0.7 [(Mg 5.5 Li 0.3 )Si 8 O 20 (OH) 4 ] − 0.7 ). [24] Polymer chains can physically crosslinked to the surface of clay nanosheets through ionic or polar interactions resulting in unique organic/inorganic networks. [25] Besides, the ions released from the exfoliated clay nanosheets give conductivity to gels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environment Adaptable Nanocomposite Organohydrogels for Multifunctional Epidermal Sensors

Xie

Gao

et al. 2022

Adv Materials Inter

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The new generations of wearable materials need to concurrently possess satisfactory biocompatibility and conformability with skin. Different from electronic conductors, ionic conductors report signals using ions like human skin. [3] Ionic conductors can perform many functions that are difficult for electronic conductors. Remarkably, high elastic deformation, high stretchability, and biocompatibility are important parameters for the new-generation ionic conductor applications. [2,4] A flexible device that uses ions as a carrier can be called ionic skin (i-skin). [5] Typical i-skin adopted hydrogel as elastic matrix and deliquescent salts to provide ions such as NaCl, [6] KCl, [7] FeCl 3 , [8] etc. Nonetheless, the water-based materials are particularly sensitive to humidity and temperature, which inevitably leads to dehydration or deliquescent, or even freezing and thus limits the long-term stability of ionic hydrogel conductors. Although the introduction of salts can improve the freezing tolerance of hydrogels, high concentration of ions tends to destroy the interaction inside the network such as hydrogen bonding and ionic bonding which resulting in the poor mechanical strength. [6,9] Ionogel conductors have emerged as another optional materials due to their nonvolatility, high thermal stability, and low temperature resistance. [10,11] However, the inherent toxicity of ionic liquids is a hidden danger for wearable devices which contact with living organism.Natural skin can maintain its flexibility and functionality in harsh environments like freezing and over-heating. For instance, rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) have the ability to adapt to very cold water temperatures. This is because their tissues express anti-freeze proteins and glycerol to prevent freezing at sub-zero temperatures. [12] Especially, glycerol (1,2,3-propanetriol or glycerin) as a transparent, odorless and nontoxic liquid, has been widely used in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. After introducing glycerol into water, the hydrogen bonds between H 2 O molecules was disrupted and strong hydrogen bonds were formed between H 2 O molecules and glycerol molecules in the binary solution. [13] Benefitting from this interaction, the obtained organohydrogels can be stored in dry air or low temperature for a long time without losing their mass and flexibility. [14] For instance, anti-freezing conductive double-network organohydrogels were fabricated by soaking a poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic Electronic skins, as a revolution in artificial intelligence, have drawn intensive attention in smart prosthetic devices, wearable health monitors and intelligent robot manufacturing. Conductive hydrogels as building blocks have been highlighted in artificial skin research. Nevertheless, the main challenges of hydrogel-based electronics are poor temperature tolerance, weak mechanical robustness and limited stretchability. Herein, an organohydrogel is fabricated with "soft and hard" synergistic networks by combining "soft" polyacryl amide (PAM) and catec...

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Self-sintering liquid metal ink with LAPONITE® for flexible electronics

Abstract: Liquid-metal (LM)-based flexible and stretchable electronics have attracted widespread interest in soft robotics, self-powered devices and electronic skins. Although nanometerization can facilitate deposition and patterning of LMs onto substrates, subsequent...

Cited by 26 publications

References 55 publications

Liquid Metal Microgels for Three-Dimensional Printing of Smart Electronic Clothes

Liquid Metal Microgels for Three-Dimensional Printing of Smart Electronic Clothes

Controlled Transformation of Liquid Metal Microspheres in Aqueous Solution Triggered by Growth of GaOOH

Environment Adaptable Nanocomposite Organohydrogels for Multifunctional Epidermal Sensors

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