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

Tian, Kevin; Bae, Jinhye; Bakarich, Shannon E; Yang, Canhui; Gately, Reece D; Spinks, Geoffrey M; In Het Panhuis, Marc; Suo, Zhigang et al. · Adv Mater · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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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.