3D printing highly stretchable conductors for flexible electronics with low signal hysteresis. Issue 1 (2nd January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, Jun; Yan, Honghao; Wang, Chengyun; Gong, Huaqiang; Nie, Qiuxiao; Long, Yu
• Is Part Of: Virtual and physical prototyping. Volume 17:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 19
• Page End: 32
• Publication Date: 2022-01-02
• Subjects: Digital light processing -- 3D printing -- flexible electronics -- UV-curable elastomer -- stretchable conductors; Rapid prototyping -- Periodicals; Virtual computer systems -- Periodicals; Prototypes, Engineering -- Periodicals; Production engineering -- Periodicals; Design, Industrial -- Periodicals; 670.285
• DOI: 10.1080/17452759.2021.1980283
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-2759

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Previous studies on UV-curable elastomer for digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing flexible electronics mostly focused on higher stretchability and healability, thereby ignoring rapid recoverability after a stretch which is very important for the real-time transmission of electrical signals in flexible electronics. Herein, a UV-curable elastomer is developed with a novel dynamic hierarchical crosslinking network that can be stretched up to over 800% and rapid recoverability at 300% strain. We proposed a hydrogel-elastomer assembling process to simplify the manufacturing process for stretchable conductors. The stretchable conductors served as a strain sensor exhibiting excellent stability and repeatability after 10 cycles at 20–50% strain with low signal drift and hysteresis, Moreover, the strain sensor can be utilised in recognising the different bending angles of the finger, making DLP printing of conductive elastomer a viable strategy for the rapid manufacturing of flexible electronics.