Yu Dehai, Wang Zhonghao, Chi Guidong, Zhang Qiubo, Fu Junxian, Li Maolin, Liu Chuanke, Zhou Quan, Li Zhen, Chen Du, Song Zhenghe, He Zhizhu
Center for Agricultural Flexible Electronics Technology, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Feb 8;15(1):1179. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45562-y.
The active-cooling elastomer concept, originating from vascular thermoregulation for soft biological tissue, is expected to develop an effective heat dissipation method for human skin, flexible electronics, and soft robots due to the desired interface mechanical compliance. However, its low thermal conduction and poor adaptation limit its cooling effects. Inspired by the bone structure, this work reports a simple yet versatile method of fabricating arbitrary-geometry liquid metal skeleton-based elastomer with bicontinuous Gyroid-shaped phases, exhibiting high thermal conductivity (up to 27.1 W/mK) and stretchability (strain limit >600%). Enlightened by the vasodilation principle for blood flow regulation, we also establish a hydraulic-driven conformal morphing strategy for better thermoregulation by modulating the hydraulic pressure of channels to adapt the complicated shape with large surface roughness (even a concave body). The liquid metal active-cooling elastomer, integrated with the flexible thermoelectric device, is demonstrated with various applications in the soft gripper, thermal-energy harvesting, and head thermoregulation.
主动冷却弹性体概念源于对柔软生物组织的血管温度调节，由于其所需的界面机械顺应性，有望为人体皮肤、柔性电子器件和软体机器人开发一种有效的散热方法。然而，其低导热性和适应性差限制了其冷却效果。受骨骼结构启发，这项工作报道了一种简单而通用的方法，用于制造具有双连续类螺旋状相的任意几何形状的基于液态金属骨架的弹性体，该弹性体具有高导热性（高达27.1W/mK）和拉伸性（应变极限>600%）。受用于血流调节的血管舒张原理启发，我们还建立了一种液压驱动的共形变形策略，通过调节通道的液压来更好地进行温度调节，以适应具有大表面粗糙度的复杂形状（甚至是凹面体）。集成了柔性热电装置的液态金属主动冷却弹性体在软夹爪、热能收集和头部温度调节等方面有多种应用。
