Puncture-Resistant and Self-healing Multifunctional Electronic Skin

Flexible electronic skins play a very important role in the development of human-machine interaction and wearable devices. To fully mimic the functions of human skin, electronic skins should better be able to perceive multiple external stimuli (such as temperature, touch and friction) and resistant to injury. However, both objectives are highly challenging. The fabrication of multifunctional electronic skins is difficult because of the complex lamination scheme and the integration of different sensors. The design of skin-like materials is hindered by the trade-off problem between flexibility, toughness and self-healing ability. In the past a few years, we designed and synthesized a series of polymer which have modulus similar to that of skins, and shows good flexibility, puncture-resistance, notch-insensitivity, and fast self-healing ability. Upon incorporating conductive filliers or liquid metals, the as compared conductive composites can convert changes in temperature and strain into electrical signal changes, thus leading to multifunctional sensing performance. Based on these superior properties, we have prepared a series of flexible electronic skin sensor, demonstrating its great potential in the wearable field and physiological signal detection.