Flexible electronics hold the potential to revolutionize personalized healthcare, especially in the form of portable and miniaturized devices, bio-electrical implants, and multi-pixel sensing arrays. Notably, wearable and portable body-conformable sensing platforms stand out due to their good contact for accurate data recording. However, the toxic risk of traditional commercial glue-type adhesives and the non-stretchable property of the novel green synthetic adhesives limit their adaptability to the stretched skin. Therefore, it still remains challenging to develop novel adhesives with high adhesion yet mechanical ductility for the long-term attachment of flexible electronics on human skin.
Recently, Academician Huang Wei and Professor Yang Zhen of Strait Institute of Flexible Electronics (SIFE, Future Technologies) of FNU and Professor Ghim Wei Ho of National University of Singapore have developed a novel adhesive ionogel (AIG) with fast gelation, ultrahigh adhesion, and excellent mechanical toughness, which opens up new possibilities of stretchable and wireless devices. Meanwhile, they designed a battery-free and wireless AIG patch for real-time monitoring of vertebral positions, enabling the assessment of body postures and aiding the regulation of physiological activities. Relevant research, entitled “Rapidly Gelling, Highly Adhesive, and Mechanically Robust Ionogels for Stretchable and Wireless Electronics,” was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
FNU is the first affiliation of the paper, with Academician Huang Wei, Professor Yang Zhen and Professor Ghim Wei Ho as the co-corresponding authors. The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province and the innovation team of photoelectric functional materials and devices for biomedical theranostics of FNU, and so on.
Paper link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202310963
(Translated by Chen Junfan/ Reviewed by Xie Xiujuan)