Soft electronics and robotics are in increasing demand for diverse applications. However, soft devices typically lack rigid enclosures which can increase their susceptibility to damage and lead to failure and premature disposal. This creates a need for soft and stretchable functional materials with resilient and regenerative properties. Here we show a liquid metal-elastomer-plasticizer composite for soft electronics with robust circuitry that is self-healing, reconfigurable, and ultimately recyclable. This is achieved through an embossing technique for on-demand formation of conductive liquid metal networks which can be reprocessed to rewire or completely recycle the soft electronic composite. These skin-like electronics stretch to 1200% strain with minimal change in electrical resistance, sustain numerous damage events under load without losing electrical conductivity, and are recycled to generate new devices at the end of life. These soft composites with adaptive liquid metal microstructures can find broad use for soft electronics and robotics with improved lifetime and recyclability.

软电子和机器人技术对各种应用的需求不断增加。然而，软设备通常缺乏刚性外壳，这会增加它们对损坏的敏感性并导致故障和过早处置。这就产生了对具有弹性和再生特性的柔软且可拉伸的功能材料的需求。在这里，我们展示了一种用于软电子产品的液态金属-弹性体-增塑剂复合材料，该复合材料具有强大的电路，可自我修复、可重新配置并最终可回收。这是通过一种按需形成导电液态金属网络的压花技术实现的，该网络可以重新加工以重新布线或完全回收软电子复合材料。这些类似皮肤的电子设备可拉伸至 1200% 的应变，电阻的变化最小，在负载下承受多次损坏事件而不会失去导电性，并在使用寿命结束时被回收以生成新设备。这些具有自适应液态金属微结构的软复合材料可广泛用于软电子和机器人，具有更长的使用寿命和可回收性。