The Smart Polymer Materials group led by Professor Chen Tao at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed a facile approach to development of elastic and conductive Janus membranes with excellent adhesion for advanced flexible multifunctional electronics. The study was published in Chemistry of Materials (Chem. Mater.).

The bioinspired conformal and adhesive membrane [IMAGE: NIMTE]

Thanks to their portable, flexible, and soft features, wearable electronics have drawn tremendous attention among researchers, especially in the field of mobile health monitoring, human-machine interaction, and soft robotics. However, developing skin-like membranes with enhanced interfacial conformality and adhesion via a facile and efficient approach still remains challenging.

Marine organisms such as barnacles can realize strong adhesion by the secretion of proteins. Specifically, the barnacle secretes mucus to fully wet the topological surfaces, and then the mucus condenses into a gelatinous layer with high adhesion after several hours of curing.

Inspired by the barnacles, researchers at CAS’s NIMTE prepared carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/Ecoflex Janus membrane on the water surface through interfacial assembly. Subsequently, the CNTs/Ecoflex Janus membrane experienced a two-step curing process, including partial curing for full spreading on substrates and complete curing for enhanced conformal adhesion.

The Janus membrane can be further integrated into wearable conformal electronics, thus realizing effective and stable detection of conventional unidirectional bending deformation as well as the high-efficiency differentiation of reverse fine deformation. In addition, the developed wearable electronics can highly adapt to a hierarchically wrinkled paper surface, enabling real-time dynamic detection of the paper-folding behavior.

As a proof of concept, an artificial wrinkled trunk based on the Janus membrane was designed for bidirectional bending deformation monitoring and motion differentiation.

This study on the bioinspired membrane with enhanced adhesion may shed light on the facile and efficient fabrication of multifunctional wearable electronics and soft robotics.

The research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52073295), Open Research Projects of Zhejiang Lab (No. 2022MG0AB01), the Sino-German Mobility Program (M-0424), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDB-SSWSLH036), the Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.174433KYSB20170061), the K. C. Wong Education Foundation (GJTD-2019-13), the Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Project (No. 2021KY279), and Ningbo Public Welfare Technology Research (No. 202002N3182).

For more information, please contact:

Wang Xueyu

E-mail: wangxueyu@nimte.ac.cn

Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE),

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Source: Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE),

Chinese Academy of Sciences