Ma Jiexian, Liu Zihan, Zhang Pu
Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA.
Adv Mater. 2025 Jul 2:e2507646. doi: 10.1002/adma.202507646.
Liquid metal particle-based microfibers attract great interest in soft and wearable electronics. The most facile method to fabricate sub-50 µm liquid metal fiber is electrospinning. However, electrospinning has poor patterning ability and the electrospun fibers have inherent defects, which significantly lowers the electrical conductivity and limits their application. Therefore, better manufacturing methods are needed to precisely deposit high-quality liquid metal fibers. In this work, an electrohydrodynamic printing process is developed to precisely pattern liquid metal microfibers with minimal defects and ultra-high resolution (≈1.5 µm), overcoming the limitations of electrospinning. The patterned liquid metal fibers can be used for soft conductive composites and soft electronics with highly customized microscale features. The conductive composites embedded with these fibers not only exhibit high conductivity (up to 214 S cm), but also possess nearly strain-insensitive resistance (7.3% resistance change at 200% strain) and exceptional cyclic stability. Additionally, the potential applications of the liquid metal fibers and composites in soft sensors, stretchable heaters, and transparent electrodes are demonstrated.
基于液态金属颗粒的微纤维在柔性可穿戴电子器件领域引起了广泛关注。制造直径小于50微米的液态金属纤维最简便的方法是静电纺丝。然而，静电纺丝的图案化能力较差，且静电纺丝纤维存在固有缺陷，这显著降低了其电导率并限制了它们的应用。因此，需要更好的制造方法来精确沉积高质量的液态金属纤维。在这项工作中，开发了一种电流体动力学打印工艺，以精确地制造出缺陷最少、分辨率超高（约1.5微米）的液态金属微纤维，克服了静电纺丝的局限性。图案化的液态金属纤维可用于具有高度定制微观特征的柔性导电复合材料和柔性电子器件。嵌入这些纤维的导电复合材料不仅具有高电导率（高达214 S/cm），而且具有几乎对应变不敏感的电阻（在200%应变下电阻变化7.3%）和出色的循环稳定性。此外，还展示了液态金属纤维和复合材料在柔性传感器、可拉伸加热器和透明电极方面的潜在应用。
