The first method applies conventional materials like gold, silver and other metals that are sufficiently thin to be bendable onto a sheet of stretchable material like rubber. In recent years, researchers utilized two complementary ways to achieve conductive patterns on stretchable materials. Electronics on stretchable materials are required for smart clothing in healthcare and sports, implants integrated within the body, as well as stretchable sensor skins for humanoid robots and objects with high mechanical strain. These sensors need electrical wiring, which may be realized on stretchable materials like textiles and rubbers. The opportunities to improve processes and healthcare by using more and more sensors in the system or on the human body increase the need for sensors on a large range of surfaces. These self-healing wires can serve as wiring and binary strain or pressure sensors in sportswear, compression underwear, and in robotic applications. Finally, a 60 mm long stretchable conductor was integrated onto wearables, and showed that it can bear strains of up to 300% and recover to a conductivity that allows the operation of an assembled LED assembled at only 1.8 V.
We analyze the swelling of the silicone due to the ink’s solvent and the nanoparticle film on top by microscope and SEM images. After over-stretching, the wire is conductive within less than a second. The viscoelastic behavior of the substrate results in a temporarily increased resistance that decreases to almost the original value. This wire was stretched more than 10,000 times and was still conductive afterwards. on a non-pre-strained sheet of elastic silicone. A consumer grade inkjet printer was used to print a wire of silver nanoparticles with a sheet resistance below 1 Ω/sq. In this work, we present an easy method to produce wires using only commercially available materials.
The necessity to place sensors far away from the processing unit in smart clothes or artificial skins for robots may require conductive wirings on stretchable materials at very low-cost.
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