IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-11466-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaporation-induced sintering of liquid metal droplets with biological nanofibrils for flexible conductivity and responsive actuation

Author

Listed:
  • Xiankai Li

    (Group of Biomimetic Smart Materials Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Center of Material and Optoelectronics Engineering University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Mingjie Li

    (Group of Biomimetic Smart Materials Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jie Xu

    (Group of Biomimetic Smart Materials Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Center of Material and Optoelectronics Engineering University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jun You

    (Group of Biomimetic Smart Materials Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Zhiqin Yang

    (School of Materials Science and Engineering Harbin Institute of Technology)

  • Chaoxu Li

    (Group of Biomimetic Smart Materials Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Center of Material and Optoelectronics Engineering University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

Liquid metal (LM) droplets show the superiority in coalescing into integral liquid conductors applicable in flexible and deformable electronics. However, the large surface tension, oxide shells and poor compatibility with most other materials may prevent spontaneous coalescence of LM droplets and/or hybridisation into composites, unless external interventions (e.g., shear and laser) are applied. Here, we show that biological nanofibrils (NFs; including cellulose, silk fibroin and amyloid) enable evaporation-induced sintering of LM droplets under ambient conditions into conductive coating on diverse substrates and free-standing films. The resultants possess an insulating NFs-rich layer and a conductive LM-rich layer, offering flexibility, high reflectivity, stretchable conductivity, electromagnetic shielding, degradability and rapid actuating behaviours. Thus this sintering approach not only extends fundamental knowledge about sintering LM droplets, but also starts a new scenario of producing flexible coating and free-standing composites with flexibility, conductivity, sustainability and degradability, and applicable in microcircuits, wearable electronics and soft robotics.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiankai Li & Mingjie Li & Jie Xu & Jun You & Zhiqin Yang & Chaoxu Li, 2019. "Evaporation-induced sintering of liquid metal droplets with biological nanofibrils for flexible conductivity and responsive actuation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11466-5
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11466-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11466-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-11466-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Qiao & Ye, Min & Cai, Xue & Sauer, Dirk Uwe & Li, Weihan, 2023. "Transferable data-driven capacity estimation for lithium-ion batteries with deep learning: A case study from laboratory to field applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    2. Zewen Lin & Xiaowen Qiu & Zhouqishuo Cai & Jialiang Li & Yanan Zhao & Xinping Lin & Jinmeng Zhang & Xiaolan Hu & Hua Bai, 2024. "High internal phase emulsions gel ink for direct-ink-writing 3D printing of liquid metal," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11466-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.