College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, Shanxi Province, China.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Key Laboratory for Advanced Manufacturing by Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education of PR China, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China.
Mater Horiz. 2023 Jul 3;10(7):2525-2534. doi: 10.1039/d3mh00252g.
The booming development of electronic skins necessitates stretchable electrodes and flexible sensors that exhibit distinctly opposite requirements of electromechanical properties, both of which are difficult to be fulfilled on a single material. Here, a pufferfish-inspired, interlayer regulation strategy is proposed that realizes the above opposite properties in simple metal films, exhibiting either ultra-stretchability (295% strain) or sensitivity (maximum GF: ∼5500) on demand. It is revealed that the stretchability of the intrinsically strain-sensitive metal films can be improved by ∼20-fold regulating the surface morphology of the inserted interlayer, accompanied by an intriguing transition in film cracking behavior from cut-through cracks to network patterns. By featuring these two antithetical but valuable properties, common metal films can be applied as diverse sensors and stretchable electrodes in electronic skins, showing application prospects in healthcare monitoring, human-machine interaction, and engineering services. Our proposed strategy substantially advances the application of metal film conductors in flexible electronics and broadens the horizons for developing more sophisticated electronic skins by interlayer engineering.
电子皮肤的蓬勃发展需要具有可拉伸电极和灵活传感器的材料，而这些材料的机电性能要求截然不同，这两者都很难在单一材料上同时实现。在这里，我们提出了一种受河豚启发的中间层调控策略，该策略可在简单的金属薄膜中实现上述相反的性能，根据需要表现出超高的拉伸性（295%应变）或敏感性（最大 GF：~5500）。研究表明，通过调节插入中间层的表面形态，可将本征应变敏感的金属薄膜的拉伸性提高约 20 倍，同时薄膜的裂纹行为也会发生有趣的转变，从贯穿型裂纹转变为网络模式。通过兼具这两种对立但有价值的特性，普通金属薄膜可用作电子皮肤中的各种传感器和可拉伸电极，在医疗保健监测、人机交互和工程服务等方面具有应用前景。我们提出的策略极大地推进了金属薄膜导体在柔性电子领域的应用，并通过中间层工程为开发更复杂的电子皮肤拓宽了视野。
