Abstract
There is an urgent need for a simple and effective method to manufacture flexible sensors composed of liquid metal. Gallium (Ga) metal has become an ideal flexible conductive material due to its high conductivity, low melting point, and high flow characteristics. In this paper, liquid Ga metal is directly written on the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film through the driving mode of piston extrusion; then, the Ga metal wire is transferred and sealed with silica gel. The advantages of piston mode are studied, and the direct writing parameters of the liquid Ga metal, including extrusion speed, nozzle height, printing speed, and nozzle inner diameter, are systematically optimized. The flexible sensor based on the sealed liquid Ga metal has good resilience under the external load. This work provides a specific reference for direct writing of liquid Ga metal and its sealing technology for the flexible sensor.
Highlights
Nowadays, the application environment of electronic products is becoming more and more complex
(4) Component A and component B of Ecoflex-0030 silica gel are mixed in a weight ratio of 1 : 1 and poured on the liquid Ga metal structure. (5) e liquid Ga metal covered by silica gel is removed from the PMMA substrate. (6) e sealed product is immersed in pure water for 5 minutes, and the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film is torn off. (7) e other side of the film is sealed using the same method
In order to explore whether pneumatic extrusion and piston extrusion are suitable for direct writing of liquid Ga metal, a pneumatic extrusion and a piston extrusion platform are constructed. e results of pneumatic extrusion and piston extrusion are shown in Figure 2. e Ga metal wire of pneumatic extrusion is shown in Figure 2(a). e Ga wire is not smooth, and there are obvious “burrs.” e Ga metal wire of piston extrusion is shown in Figure 2(b), and the Ga metal wire is smooth and even relatively
Summary
The application environment of electronic products is becoming more and more complex. Due to the flexibility, short response time, high sensitivity, and features of sensing the force on the surface of objects, have drawn extensive attention [1]. Flexible sensors have a wide range of applications in wearable sensors [2,3,4,5], health monitoring devices [6,7,8,9,10,11], and soft robotics [12, 13]. Yu et al presented a flexible pressure sensor constructed by threedimensional polypyrene foam, which can detect carcinoembryonic antigen sensitively and rapidly [6]. The functional requirements of products are important and the flexibility and ductility requirements of electronic products are highly emphasized
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