npj Flexible Electronics最新文献

Iontronics presents a transformative paradigm for energy and information processing via ions as active charge carriers. Here, triboiontronics is introduced, a novel strategy leveraging contact electrification to achieve dynamic regulation of electrical double layers. Inspired by signaling mechanisms of biological neural systems, triboiontronics enables enhanced ionic-electronic coupling without external power input, offering a material-independent and self-powered pathway for programmable interfacial behavior, underscoring its promise for post-Moore, energy-autonomous information technologies.

Integrating stretchable and rigid electric units presents a significant challenge in manufacturing stretchable electronics. Their surface property differences prevented reliable stretching-tolerant connections. Here, we report a universal method to construct stretchable connections based on interfacial covalent reactions. It enables robust and conductive bonding among various soft/rigid electronics through simple surface modification and interfacial reaction. The bonding between SEBS rubber and metals reached stretchability over 250% with interfacial toughness over 200 N/m. The ultrathin connection layer provided conductive pathways, achieving an electrical stretchability of 60% between Au-deposited SEBS and Cu sheets. Connections between liquid metal-based stretchable conductors could withstand more than 10,000 stretching cycles to 60% strain while maintaining their high conductivity. The versatility and stability of this method were further proved by fabricating electronic devices that integrated soft and rigid units, including circuits on papers and a gesture-visualizing glove with LEDs, highlighting the robustness of the stretchable connections.

Intracortical microelectrodes are used for recording activity from individual neurons, providing both a valuable neuroscience tool and an enabling medical technology for individuals with motor disabilities. Standard neural probes carrying the microelectrodes are rigid silicon-based structures that can penetrate the brain parenchyma to interface with the targeted neurons. Unfortunately, within weeks after implantation, neural recording quality from microelectrodes degrades, owing largely to a neuroinflammatory response. Key contributors to the neuroinflammatory response include mechanical mismatch at the device-tissue interface and oxidative stress. We developed a mechanically-adaptive, resveratrol-eluting (MARE) neural probe to mitigate both mechanical mismatch and oxidative stress and thereby promote improved neural recording quality and longevity. In this work, we demonstrate that compared to rigid silicon controls, highly-flexible MARE probes exhibit improved recording performance, more stable impedance, and a healing tissue response. With further optimization, MARE probes can serve as long-term, robust neural probes for brain-machine interface applications.

Biodegradable electronic fibers offer high flexibility, large surface area, and spatial deformability, enabling conformal tissue contact, efficient signal acquisition, and minimal invasiveness—ideal for sustainable and transient electronics. However, previously developed biodegradable conductive fibers often suffered from incomplete degradability, limited flexibility, and scalability. Here, we introduce a biodegradable, flexible, and mass-producible fiber electrode, consisting of tungsten microparticles, a polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate matrix and a poly butanedithiol 1,3,5-triallyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione pentenoic anhydride coating. The dry-jet wet-spinning process ensures uniform filler dispersion and continuous fiber formation, yielding high conductivity (~2500 S m⁻¹) over lengths exceeding 10 m. The coating provides flexibility (~38% strain) and durability against repeated deformation and laundering. We demonstrate wearable textile electronics by integrating fiber-based temperature sensors, electromyography electrodes, and a wireless coil into an arm sleeve. Finally, enzymatic and soil biodegradation tests highlight their potential as sustainable and eco-friendly disposable electronics.

In-flight icing is a common hazard in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), accounting for 25% of drone accidents due to their sensitivity to weight increase. Anti-icing technology for UAVs remains challenging because of their limited payload capacity and insufficient power to support electrothermal deicing systems. In this study, a self-healing intelligent skin was developed for small-size smart devices, such as UAVs. It provides anti-icing and icephobic capabilities in addition to real-time monitoring of in-flight icing. This skin consists of five layers, including self-healing supramolecular elastomers and electrodes, with an encapsulation layer composed of a specially designed fluoropolymer to decrease the ice nucleation temperature (−28.4 °C) and ice adhesion strength (33.0 kPa). Notably, this skin can monitor ice accretion on the UAV surface in real time, and its sensing performance undergoes complete self-recovery after damage. This study paves the way for intelligent UAVs to operate safely under extreme weather conditions.

To address the energy storage needs of wearable electronics, this study developed high-performance, flexible micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) using 2D and 3D patterned fabric-based microelectrodes. The 2D electrodes were created via a screen-printing method with an omnidirectional pre-stretching strategy, while 3D array-structured electrodes were formed through electrostatic actuation. Nano-MnO₂ and Na_0.77MnO₂ were deposited to enhance pseudo-capacitive storage and widen the electrochemical window. The C-C/MnO₂-based MSCs exhibited a 21% pseudo-capacitance ratio, achieving an area-specific capacitance of 118.2 mF cm⁻² at 5 mV s⁻¹ and an energy density of 39.25 mWh cm⁻² at 0.21 mW cm⁻². These MSCs maintained 95.05%, 92.04%, and 89.74% of their capacitance under stretched, twisted, and folded conditions, respectively, and showed stable performance across temperatures from −20 °C to 60 °C. Additionally, C-C/Na_0.77MnO₂-based MSCs extended the electrochemical window to 1.6 V and retained 100.2% capacitance after 6500 cycles. This work offers innovative strategies for advancing portable and wearable electronic devices.

Soft millirobot has attracted significant attention and demonstrated tremendous potential in human-robot interactions and safety inspections. Locomotion and perception are two crucial features for achieving effective gait and practical applications of robots. Inspired by nature, this research reports a magnetic soft millirobot that integrates locomotion and sensing capacities simultaneously. Microconical matrix with rich and regular surface morphologies are constructed directly inside the millirobot as both multilegged and triboelectric-enhanced sensing structures via cooperation of jet printing and magnetization-induction method with high-speed and high-precision. The robot can both recognize its current body state across various application scenarios and identify terrains through a machine learning strategy. Our work presents a customizable approach for smart millirobots to perform tasks in nonmagnetic structured environments and provides embedded sensing capability for next-generation soft robots.

Piezoelectric materials are capable of converting between mechanical and electrical energy, and are suitable for sensing, actuating and energy harvesting. While most conventional piezoelectric materials are brittle solids, flexible piezoelectric materials (FPM) retain functionality even under bending and stretching conditions. This characteristic has garnered increasing attention in recent years, particularly for wearable devices, where the ability to adapt to dynamic human movements is essential. In addition, wearable devices also demand excellent conformability, durability, and adaptability to miniaturization. FPM emerge as a promising solution that meet all these requirements. This review thus aims to offer a comprehensive summary of recent advances in the field of FPM, including piezoelectric polymers, composites, and inorganic flexible films. We introduce and categorize the specific features of these materials and highlight their emerging applications in electronic devices, and comment on the prospect of FPM as well as their potential challenges.

Large-area, paper-based ZnO synaptic transistor arrays for visual perception and neuromorphic computing have been fabricated for the first time entirely by screen printing. The channel ink was formulated by dispersing ZnO nanoparticles with a small amount of hydroxyl-rich ethyl cellulose in terpineol, which converted into a semiconducting film at a low temperature of 90 °C. The paper-based transistor arrays exhibited desirable electrical properties, large-area uniformity, environmental stability and biodegradable, making them particularly promising as disposable devices. The printed ZnO synaptic transistors demonstrated exceptional photoelectric synaptic behaviors, including paired-pulse facilitation and depression, high-pass and low-pass filtering, learning, forgetting, relearning, Morse code recognition, and short-term/long-term plasticity, all at a low energy consumption of about 3.7 pJ per synaptic event. Artificial visual learning and information storage capabilities were achieved owing to the persistent photoconductance effect of the printed ZnO films, achieving an accuracy of 91.4% in neuromorphic computing through optoelectronic co-modulation.

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have emerged as essential components in various applications, including bioelectronics, neuromorphics, sensing, and flexible electronics. Recently, efforts have been directed toward developing flexible and sustainable OECTs to enhance their integration into wearable and implantable biomedical devices. In this work, we introduce a novel PEDOT:Sacran bio-nanocomposite as a channel material for flexible and biodegradable OECTs. Sacran, a high-molecular-weight polysaccharide derived from blue-green algae, possesses exceptional ionic conductivity, water retention, and biocompatibility, making it a promising candidate for bioelectronic applications. We successfully fabricated ultrathin and flexible OECTs on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) foils, achieving transconductance values up to 7.4 mS. The devices exhibited stable ion-to-electron transduction after mechanical deformation. The OECTs were further demonstrated on eco-friendly and biodegradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA) substrates, achieving a transconductance of 1.6 mS and undergoing enzymatic hydrolysis under controlled conditions. This study highlights the potential of Sacran-based conductive bio-nanocomposites in advancing sustainable bioelectronic devices.