Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Sehyun Park, Seunghyeb Ban, Nathan Zavanelli, Andrew E. Bunn, Shinjae Kwon, Hyo-ryoung Lim, Woon-Hong Yeo, Jong-Hoon Kim
Summary: Recent advances in soft materials and nano-microfabrication have made it possible to develop flexible wearable electronics. Printing technologies have shown efficiency and compatibility with polymeric materials for manufacturing wearable electronics. In this study, fully screen-printable, skin-conformal electrodes were presented for low-cost and scalable manufacturing of wearable electronics. The screen printing process enables easy, cost-effective, and high-throughput manufacturing, while the ink used for the conductive layer printing allows for natural deformation under stretching and bending conditions. Real-time wireless electrocardiogram monitoring was successfully demonstrated using the printed electrodes, with an algorithm developed for accurate heart rate and respiratory rate calculations, as well as arrhythmia detection.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Gang Ge, Qian Wang, Yi-Zhou Zhang, Husam N. Alshareef, Xiaochen Dong
Summary: In the development of flexible electronics, particularly hydrogel-based stretchable ionotronic devices, researchers are exploring the potential of 3D printing for its excellent patterning capability and design complexity. Despite facing challenges in balancing printability, conductivity, and stretchability, this review offers guidelines on utilizing 3D printing to create high-performance devices, focusing on material considerations and printing quality. Various 3D printing methods for hydrogels and design principles are discussed, along with the potential applications in flexible sensors, soft robots, and other devices.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Ulrika Boda, Ioannis Petsagkourakis, Valerio Beni, Peter Andersson Ersman, Klas Tybrandt
Summary: The challenge of high-performance fully printed stretchable OECTs is addressed by developing fully screen-printed stretchable OECTs. Three stretchable functional screen-printing inks are developed, enabling the fabrication of OECTs. The stretchable OECTs show good characteristics and can withstand high strains. An electrochromic smart pixel is demonstrated by connecting a stretchable OECT to a stretchable electrochromic display. The development of screen-printed stretchable electrochemical devices, particularly OECTs, is believed to pave the way for their use in wearable applications and commercial products.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Shuaishuai Chen, Huaqiang Fu, Yunfa Si, Xueyu Liu, Zhe Wang, Yixue Duan, Zixin Zhang, Hao Feng, Xin Zhao, Daping He
Summary: This study successfully prepared additive-free two-dimensional MXene inks and realized screen-printed MXene wireless electronics for the first time. By tuning the size of MXene nanosheet, the viscosity of MXene ink is regulated without any additives, resulting in highly conductive MXene film with fine printing resolution. RFID tags fabricated using additive-free MXene ink via screen printing exhibit stable antenna reading performance and superb flexibility.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
X. Lin, X. Li, Z. Zhang, X. Li, W. Zhang, J. Xu, K. Song
Summary: In this study, a water-based conductive ink was used to develop micro-supercapacitors based on carbon nanotubes and manganese dioxide on stretchable fabric through screen printing. The assembled devices exhibited high electrochemical performance and good retention under stretching and bending conditions.
MATERIALS TODAY CHEMISTRY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Andrew Claypole, James Claypole, Liam Kilduff, David Gethin, Tim Claypole
Summary: Flexible and stretchable conductive ink developed with carbon materials shows higher stretchability and consistent electrical performance compared to silver ink, making it a promising candidate for future wearable device developments. The carbon ink maintains conductivity under high strains, while the silver ink loses conductivity due to direct contact failure between silver flakes.
Article
Materials Science, Textiles
TranThuyNga Truong, Ji-Seon Kim, Jooyong Kim
Summary: This study systematically investigates the high-frequency electrical properties of embroidered dipole antennas based on electro-textiles. By characterizing conductive thread and silver ink, and optimizing the antenna design, a low-cost structure is proposed to achieve good performance while reducing material consumption and time. Additionally, the comparison between silver thread and ink shows that silver conductive threads have more potential to improve efficiency at high frequencies.
FIBERS AND POLYMERS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ahmadreza Ghaffarkhah, Milad Kamkar, Zahra Azimi Dijvejin, Hossein Riazi, Saeed Ghaderi, Kevin Golovin, Masoud Soroush, Mohammad Arjmand
Summary: This study addresses the challenges of low printing resolution and the inability to create structures with high electrical conductivity and mechanical flexibility in MXene-based printing. By utilizing high-resolution extrusion printing and fabricating composite structures, the researchers were able to expand the applications of MXene-based printing and create highly-sensitive strain sensors. These sensors are capable of monitoring various human activities.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Hyunbum Kang, Yeongjun Lee, Gae Hwang Lee, Jong Won Chung, Young-Nam Kwon, Joo-Young Kim, Yasutaka Kuzumoto, Sangah Gam, Sung-Gyu Kang, Ji Young Jung, Ajeong Choi, Youngjun Yun
Summary: A stretchable and skin-conformable photodiode (PD) is essential for the development of next-generation wearable electronics. This study demonstrates intrinsically stretchable polymer-based PDs (is-PPDs) with high detectivity and high mechanical stretchability. By using elastomeric photoactive layers and conducting polymer-based stretchable transparent electrodes, is-PPDs exhibit excellent detectivity and stable performance even under large deformation.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Tomasz Raczynski, Daniel Janczak, Jerzy Szalapak, Sandra Lepak-Kuc, Dominik Baraniecki, Maria Muszynska, Aleksandra Kadziela, Katarzyna Wojkowska, Jakub Krzeminski, Malgorzata Jakubowska
Summary: This study analyzes the impact of different parameters in the heat transfer process on the electrical and mechanical properties of flexible electronics made on textiles, demonstrating its viability as a manufacturing method.
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Myeungwoo Ryu, Jaeik Kim, Seungwoo Lee, Jeonghyun Kim, Taeseup Song
Summary: Stretchable devices allow for expanded applications in flexible displays and wearable devices/sensors, requiring methods for connecting unit devices and developing circuits. The development of a highly transparent PDMS-CNC composite paper has demonstrated excellent flexibility and stretchability, making it a suitable substrate for patterning circuits in flexible devices. The composite paper has shown to maintain high transparency, withstand large tensile strains, and only experience minor increase in resistance after deformation, making it a promising technology for fabricating electrical components in wearable and flexible electronics.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Ying Zhang, Shuanghao Zheng, Feng Zhou, Xiaoyu Shi, Cong Dong, Pratteek Das, Jiaxin Ma, Kai Wang, Zhong-Shuai Wu
Summary: The study presents a scalable fabrication method for printable lithium ion micro-batteries with high energy density and exceptional flexibility, which can maintain a high capacity retention rate after multiple cycles. By using highly conductive and mechanically stable inks, LIMBs fabricated through multi-layer printing demonstrate stable areal capacity and energy density.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
He Tian, Wen Gu, Xiao-Shi Li, Tian-Ling Ren
Summary: A stretchable thermal-acoustic device based on graphene ink was fabricated and showed stable resistance and sound pressure level (SPL) changes within 10% after multiple cycles of bending, folding, prodding, and washing. The SPL also exhibited an increase with strain in a specific range, similar to the negative differential resistance (NDR) effect. This study sheds light on the potential use of stretchable thermal-acoustic devices in e-skin and wearable electronics.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Hai-Tao Deng, Dan-Liang Wen, Jing-Rui Liu, Xin-Ran Zhang, Yi-Lin Wang, Peng Huang, Beomjoon Kim, Xiao-Sheng Zhang
Summary: Wearable sensors are important in modern society, especially in the fields of electronic skin, robotics, prosthetics, and healthcare. A stretchable multifunctional sensor was developed based on porous silver nanowire/silicone rubber conductive film, which can sense pressure, temperature, and friction. This sensor successfully achieved the monitoring of multiple variables of the human body and environment.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Franck Kimetya Byondi, Youchung Chung
Summary: This study presents the design of a 920 MHz UHF RFID conductive fabric tag antenna, measuring the DC resistance and impedance of the fabric to calculate conductivity, and simulating different tag designs to compare results. The fabric tag antennas showed different reading ranges and characteristics, suitable for entrance control systems due to their easy application on other fabrics and clothes.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Weibing Gu, Wei Yuan, Tao Zhong, Xinzhou Wu, Chunshan Zhou, Jian Lin, Zheng Cui
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Tianqi Gao, Jie Deng, Xiaoqian Li, Yunfei Ren, Weibing Gu, Malo Robin, Jianwen Zhao
Summary: In this paper, fully printed flexible ultra-low voltage single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) thin film transistors (TFTs) and CMOS inverters were successfully realized at temperatures lower than 170 degrees C using ionic liquid crosslinked-poly(4-vinylphenol) as the composite solid state electrolyte dielectric layer. The optimized devices exhibited good performance with low power dissipation, achieving best values reported to date for fully printed SWCNT inverters.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY C
(2021)
