Abstract
In contrast to ionically conductive liquids and gels, a new type of yield-stress fluid featuring reversible transitions between solid and liquid states is introduced in this study as a printable, ultrastretchable, and transparent conductor. The fluid is formulated by dispersing silica nanoparticles into the concentrated aqueous electrolyte. The as-printed features show solid-state appearances to allow facile encapsulation with elastomers. The transition into liquid-like behavior upon tensile deformations is the enabler for ultrahigh stretchability up to the fracture strain of the elastomer. Successful integrations of yield-stress fluid electrodes in highly stretchable strain sensors and light-emitting devices illustrate the practical suitability. The yield-stress fluid represents an attractive building block for stretchable electronic devices and systems in terms of giant deformability, high ionic conductivity, excellent optical transmittance, and compatibility with various elastomers.
Highlights
The rapid proliferation and evolution of consumer electronics have stimulated the growth of stretchable electronic technology featuring compliant mechanical properties [1,2,3]
The stretchable transparent conductor is a key enabler for deformable forms of optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting devices [12,13,14,15,16] and photodetectors [17]
The degradations of optoelectronic performances upon tensile deformations are ascribed to the sliding between silver nanowires and damages to internanowire junctions [19, 20]
Summary
The rapid proliferation and evolution of consumer electronics have stimulated the growth of stretchable electronic technology featuring compliant mechanical properties [1,2,3]. A class of non-Newtonian fluids known as yield-stress fluids represents attractive soft materials seamlessly combining the attributes of solids and liquids [37], which are the enabler for a broad range of applications including food products [38, 39], three-dimensional printings [40,41,42], and drug delivery systems [43, 44]. The fully reversible solid-to-liquid transitions of yield-stress fluids allow large deformations by flowing in liquid states and thorough recovery of solid properties irrespective of the strain history [37, 45] These desirable characteristics have rarely been harnessed in stretchable electronic devices. The yield-stress fluids reported here features giant stretchability, high ionic conductivity, excellent transparency, exceptional durability, and facile integration with elastomeric structures, which represents an enticing building block for deformable optoelectronic devices and systems
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