Soft Electronic Platforms Combining Elastomeric Stretchability and Biodegradability

Abstract

Soft and stretchable electronic devices are expected to offer technological advances in the field of robotics, human–machine interfacing, and healthcare. Employing biodegradable elastomers, hydrogels, and nontoxic conductors would add significant value to and minimize the ecological impact of such disposable and transient electronic applications. Here, the biodegradable and photo‐crosslinkable elastomer poly(glycerol sebacic) acrylate (PGSA) is characterized for its use in soft and stretchable electronics. Its mechanical properties are investigated in terms of their chemical composition and compared to commonly used gelatin hydrogels. Furthermore, these materials are combined with interconnects made of liquid Galinstan in order to create functional substrates with certified biodegradability under ISO standards. The combination of these materials produces elastic circuit boards that act as soft platforms for body‐mounted sensors or biodegradable stretchable light‐emitting devices. These soft platforms reveal linear elongations at a break of 130% to 350% and similar moduli to nondegradable elastomers and human tissue, without any decrease in conductivity. Advanced applications in biofriendly packaging, soft robotics, and healthcare will greatly benefit from these biodegradable devices.

Polarization‐Sensitive Photodetectors Based on Directionally Oriented Organic Bulk‐Heterojunctions

“…[ 52 ] As such, natural rubber is representative of a broad class of elastomeric materials used in numerous applications, including emerging technologies requiring soft platforms for wearable electronic devices in haptics, human–machine interfacing, and medicine. [ 53 ]…”

“…[52] As such, natural rubber is representative of a broad class of elastomeric materials used in numerous applications, including emerging technologies requiring soft platforms for wearable electronic devices in haptics, human-machine interfacing, and medicine. [53] Figure 5a shows images of a natural rubber film at increasing draw ratios Λ (ratio of final and initial sample lengths) recorded in cross-polarized geometry-that is, with incident and transmitted light polarized at ±45° with respect to the drawing axis. While the unstretched (Λ = 1) film is largely isotropic and dark between crossed polarizers, transmission of light is subsequently enabled due to birefringence arising from non-isotropic distribution of macromolecules upon uniaxial extension.…”

Biodegradable Elastomers and Gels for Elastic Electronics

“…Held Reproduced with permission. [91] Copyright 2021, Wiley-VCH. c) Schematic diagram of the fabrication of the 3D printing TENGs (3DP-TENGs) and the hierarchical porous structure.…”

The Characterization of Silicone-Tungsten-Based Composites as Flexible Gamma-Ray Shields

“…Compared with traditional rigid robots, soft robots feature various advantages, including better flexibility and operability, safe human-computer interaction, low collision damage, and strong adaptability to the environment, etc. In the past few years, various kinds of soft robots [12], such as the soft robot hand [13][14][15], bioinspired soft robotics [16,17], etc., have been proposed and studied, which can be used in fields such as healthcare, humanmachine interfacing, electronic, etc. Nowadays, soft robotics have come into being with amplified flexibility, strength, and rigidity to mimic biomimetic motions and perform tasks in uncertain environments [18].…”

“…Nowadays, soft robotics have come into being with amplified flexibility, strength, and rigidity to mimic biomimetic motions and perform tasks in uncertain environments [18]. Martin Held et al [17] synthesized and characterized a biodegradable and stretchable elastomer in soft electronic platforms, which can be applied in biofriendly packaging and healthcare. A wearable robot based on a shape-memory alloy [19] was also proposed for assisting the wrist motion of patients.…”