Cryo-Transferred Ultrathin and Stretchable Epidermal Electrodes.

Yunsheng Fang, Yue Li, Xin Wang, Zhengui Zhou, Kui Zhang, Jun Zhou, Bin Hu

Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) 2020 Jul

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A simple cryo-transfer method to fabricate ultrathin, stretchable, and conformal epidermal electrodes based on a combination of silver nanowires (AgNWs) network and elastomeric polymers is developed. This method can temporarily enable the soft elastomers with much higher elastic modulus and dimensional contraction through exploiting their glass-transition behaviors. During this process, a much higher Von Mises stress can be loaded on AgNWs than usual, and the generated strong grip force can facilitate the complete transfer of AgNWs. Afterward, the thawed AgNWs and elastomer composites quickly recover to their soft state at room temperature. The obtained ultrathin and soft electrode with a thickness of 8.4 µm and transmittance of 90.8% at a sheet resistance of 13.2 Ω sq-1 can tolerate a stretching strain of 70% and 50 000 repeated bending cycles, which meets rigorous requirements of epidermal applications. The as-prepared epidermal electrodes are effective and comfortable for electrophysiological signal monitoring, and while showing excellent performance exceeding the commercialized gel electrodes. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Citation

Yunsheng Fang, Yue Li, Xin Wang, Zhengui Zhou, Kui Zhang, Jun Zhou, Bin Hu. Cryo-Transferred Ultrathin and Stretchable Epidermal Electrodes. Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). 2020 Jul;16(28):e2000450