3D Printing of Transparent and Conductive Heterogeneous Hydrogel-Elastomer Systems

Kevin Tian; Jinhye Bae; Shannon E Bakarich; Canhui Yang; Reece D Gately; Geoffrey M Spinks; Marc In Het Panhuis; Zhigang Suo; Joost J Vlassak

doi:10.1002/adma.201604827

3D Printing of Transparent and Conductive Heterogeneous Hydrogel-Elastomer Systems

Adv Mater. 2017 Mar;29(10). doi: 10.1002/adma.201604827. Epub 2017 Jan 11.

Authors

Kevin Tian¹, Jinhye Bae¹, Shannon E Bakarich^{2

3}, Canhui Yang^{1

4}, Reece D Gately^{3

5}, Geoffrey M Spinks^{2

3}, Marc In Het Panhuis^{3

5}, Zhigang Suo^{1

6}, Joost J Vlassak¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
² School of Mechanical Materials and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
³ Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, AIIM Facility, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
⁴ State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, International Center for Applied Mechanics, School of Aerospace, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
⁵ Soft Materials Group, School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia.
⁶ Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States.

PMID: 28075033
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201604827

Abstract

A hydrogel-dielectric-elastomer system, polyacrylamide and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), is adapted for extrusion printing for integrated device fabrication. A lithium-chloride-containing hydrogel printing ink is developed and printed onto treated PDMS with no visible signs of delamination and geometrically scaling resistance under moderate uniaxial tension and fatigue. A variety of designs are demonstrated, including a resistive strain gauge and an ionic cable.

Keywords: 3D printing; elastomers; hydrogels; ionic conductors; stretchable electronics.