Sunday, February 9, 2025

New Method For Creating Soft Electronics 

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The method for creating soft electronics uses a process to embed particles into polymers, enabling stretchable sensors and applications like wireless communication.

Soft sensors engulfed on A4-size elastomer. Credit: Rongzhou Lin.
Soft sensors engulfed on A4-size elastomer. Credit: Rongzhou Lin.

Researchers at the National University of Singapore and Rice University have developed a new method for creating soft electronics. The researchers’ new approach uses a soft matter physics phenomenon called ‘particle engulfment’ to incorporate particles into a soft polymer. Particle engulfment happens spontaneously when the elastocapillary length of a polymer’s matrix exceeds the characteristic length of the particles.

While attempting to create an effective soft strain sensor, the researchers found that existing methods for dispersing CNT particles into polymer solutions did not consistently produce the conductive polymers required for high-performance stretchable sensors. However, they accidentally discovered that leveraging particle engulfment could create the conductive polymers needed for stretchable electronics.

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Conventional methods for creating strain sensors using carbon nanotubes (CNT) typically involve dispersing CNTs into a polymer precursor using solvents. However, challenges were encountered in producing conductive composites using this approach. It was unexpectedly discovered that applying rubber CNTs onto cured silicone led to the easy formation of conductive composites.

Upon further investigation, the researchers discovered that nanomaterials can spontaneously embed themselves into the polymer matrix through the particle engulfment phenomenon. They combined this approach with a printing setup, using a stencil mask to control the exposed areas, successfully incorporating a wide range of functional particles into soft polymers.

To showcase the potential of their method, the team used it to create elastic electronics with multiple layers and various materials. Their fabricated devices demonstrated wireless sensing, communication, and power transfer capabilities, making them suitable for various real-world applications.

This study demonstrated the potential of using particle engulfment to develop system-level electronics with tissue-like properties and opened new avenues for soft matter physics research. Future studies could build on the methods used by the team to explore the physics behind particle engulfment in greater detail.

In the future, it could be used to create a wider range of electronics, including electronic skins for robots and stretchable sensors for wearable devices.

Nidhi Agarwal
Nidhi Agarwal
Nidhi Agarwal is a Senior Technology Journalist at EFY with a deep interest in embedded systems, development boards and IoT cloud solutions.

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