Abstract
The remarkable ability of biological systems to sense and adapt to complex environmental conditions has inspired the design of next-generation electronics with advanced functionalities. This review focuses on emerging bio-inspired strategies for the development of flexible and stretchable electronics that can accommodate mechanical deformations and integrate seamlessly with biological systems. We will provide an overview of the practical considerations in the materials and structure designs of flexible and stretchable electronics. Recent progress in bio-inspired pressure/strain sensors, stretchable electrodes, mesh electronics, and flexible energy devices are then discussed, with an emphasis on their unconventional micro/nanostructure designs and advanced functionalities. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives are identified and discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Liu, Y. H.; Pharr, M.; Salvatore, G. A. Lab-on-skin: A review of flexible and stretchable electronics for wearable health monitoring. ACS Nano2017, 11, 9614–9635.
Wang, J. X.; Lin, M. F.; Park, S.; Lee, P. S. Deformable conductors for human-machine interface. Mater. Today2018, 21, 508–526.
Zang, Y. P.; Zhang, F. J.; Di, C. A.; Zhu, D. B. Advances of flexible pressure sensors toward artificial intelligence and health care applications. Mater. Horiz.2015, 2, 140–156.
Bao, Z. N.; Chen, X. D. Flexible and stretchable devices. Adv. Mater.2016, 28, 4177–4179.
Kim, J.; Lee, M.; Rhim, J. S.; Wang, P. L.; Lu, N. S.; Kim, D. H. Next-generation flexible neural and cardiac electrode arrays. Biomed. Eng. Lett.2014, 4, 95–108.
Zhou, T.; Hong, G. S.; Fu, T. M.; Yang X.; Schuhmann, T. G.; Viveros, R. D.; Lieber, C. M. Syringe-injectable mesh electronics integrate seamlessly with minimal chronic immune response in the brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA2017, 114, 5894–5899.
Liu, Y. Q.; He, K.; Chen, G.; Leow, W. R.; Chen, X. D. Nature-inspired structural materials for flexible electronic devices. Chem. Rev.2017, 117, 12893–12941.
Yang, J. C.; Mun, J.; Kwon, S. Y.; Park, S.; Bao, Z. N.; Park, S. Electronic skin: recent progress and future prospects for skin-attachable devices for health monitoring, robotics, and prosthetics. Adv. Mater.2019, 1904765.
Jian, M. Q.; Xia, K. L.; Wang, Q.; Yin, Z.; Wang, H. M.; Wang, C. Y.; Xie, H. H.; Zhang, M. C.; Zhang, Y. Y. Flexible and highly sensitive pressure sensors based on bionic hierarchical structures. Adv. Funct. Mater.2017, 27, 1606066.
Qiu, Z. G.; Wan, Y. B.; Zhou, W. H.; Yang, J. Y.; Yang, J. L.; Huang, J.; Zhang, J. M.; Liu, Q. X.; Huang, S. Y.; Bai, N. N. et al. Ionic skin with biomimetic dielectric layer templated from calathea zebrine leaf. Adv. Funct. Mater.2018, 28, 1802343.
Gao, B. B.; Wang, X.; Li, T.; Feng, Z. Q.; Wang, C. Y.; Gu, Z. Z. Gecko-inspired paper artificial skin for intimate skin contact and multisensing. Adv. Mater. Technol.2019, 4, 1800392.
Kang, H.; Zhao, C. L.; Huang, J. R.; Ho, D. H.; Megra, Y. T.; Suk, J. W.; Sun, J.; Wang, Z. L.; Sun, Q. J.; Cho, J. H. Fingerprint-inspired conducting hierarchical wrinkles for energy-harvesting e-skin. Adv. Funct. Mater.2019, 29, 1903580.
Li, T.; Luo, H.; Qin, L.; Wang, X. W.; Xiong, Z. P.; Ding, H. Y.; Gu, Y.; Liu, Z.; Zhang, T. Flexible capacitive tactile sensor based on micropatterned dielectric layer. Small2016, 12, 5042–5048.
Wan, Y. B.; Qiu, Z. G.; Hong, Y.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, J. M.; Liu, Q. X.; Wu, Z. G.; Guo, C. F. A highly sensitive flexible capacitive tactile sensor with sparse and high-aspect-ratio microstructures. Adv. Electron. Mater.2018, 4, 1700586.
Su, B.; Gong, S.; Ma, Z.; Yap, L. W.; Cheng, W. L. Mimosa-inspired design of a flexible pressure sensor with touch sensitivity. Small2015, 11, 1886–1891.
Nie, P.; Wang, R. R.; Xu, X. J.; Cheng, Y.; Wang, X.; Shi, L. J.; Sun, J. High-performance piezoresistive electronic skin with bionic hierarchical microstructure and microcracks. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces2017, 9, 14911–14919.
Wei, Y.; Chen, S.; Lin, Y.; Yang, Z. M.; Liu, L. Cu-Ag core-shell nanowires for electronic skin with a petal molded microstructure. J. Mater. Chem. C2015, 3, 9594–9602.
Bae, G. Y.; Pak, S. W.; Kim, D.; Lee, G.; Kim D. H.; Chung, Y.; Cho, K. Linearly and highly pressure-sensitive electronic skin based on a bioinspired hierarchical structural array. Adv. Mater.2016, 28, 5300–5306.
Shi, J. D.; Wang, L.; Dai, Z. H.; Zhao, L. Y.; Du, M. D.; Li, H. B.; Fang, Y. Multiscale hierarchical design of a flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor with high sensitivity and wide linearity range. Small2018, 14, 1800819.
Lee, Y.; Park, J.; Cho, S.; Shin, Y. E.; Lee, H.; Kim, J.; Myoung, J.; Cho, S.; Kang, S.; Baig, C. et al. Flexible ferroelectric sensors with ultrahigh pressure sensitivity and linear response over exceptionally broad pressure range. ACS Nano2018, 12, 4045–4054.
Park, J.; Lee, Y.; Hong, J.; Lee, Y.; Ha, M.; Jung, Y.; Lim, H.; Kim, S. Y.; Ko, H. Tactile-direction-sensitive and stretchable electronic skins based on human-skin-inspired interlocked microstructures. ACS Nano2014, 8, 12020–12029.
Chun, S.; Choi, I. Y.; Son, W.; Bae, G. Y.; Lee, E. J.; Kwon, H.; Jung, J.; Kim, H. S.; Kim, J. K.; Park, W. A highly sensitive force sensor with fast response based on interlocked arrays of indium tin oxide nanosprings toward human tactile perception. Adv. Funct. Mater.2018, 28, 1804132.
Cao, Y. D.; Li, T.; Gu, Y.; Luo, H.; Wang, S. Q.; Zhang, T. Fingerprint-inspired flexible tactile sensor for accurately discerning surface texture. Small2018, 14, 1703902.
Boutry, C. M.; Negre, M.; Jorda, M.; Vardoulis, O.; Chortos, A.; Khatib, O.; Bao, Z. N. A hierarchically patterned, bioinspired e-skin able to detect the direction of applied pressure for robotics. Sci. Robot.2018, 3, eaau6914.
Kang, D.; Pikhitsa, P. V.; Choi, Y. W.; Lee, C.; Shin, S. S.; Piao, L. F.; Park, B.; Suh, K. Y.; Kim, T.; Choi, M. Ultrasensitive mechanical crack-based sensor inspired by the spider sensory system. Nature2014, 516, 222–226.
Park, B.; Kim, J.; Kang, D.; Jeong, C.; Kim, K. S.; Kim, J. U.; Yoo, P. J.; Kim, T. Dramatically enhanced mechanosensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio of nanoscale crack-based sensors: effect of crack depth. Adv. Mater.2016, 28, 8130–8137.
Shi, X. L.; Wang, H. K.; Xie, X. T.; Xue, Q. W.; Zhang, J. Y.; Kang, S. Q.; Wang, C. H.; Liang, J. J.; Chen, Y. S. Bioinspired ultrasensitive and stretchable mxene-based strain sensor via nacre-mimetic microscale “brick-and-mortar” architecture. ACS Nano2019, 13, 649–659.
Lee, J. H.; Kim, J.; Liu, D.; Guo, F. M.; Shen, X.; Zheng, Q. B.; Jeon, S.; Kim, J. K. Highly aligned, anisotropic carbon nanofiber films for multidirectional strain sensors with exceptional selectivity. Adv. Funct. Mater.2019, 29, 1901623.
Chen, S.; Song, Y. J.; Ding, D. Y.; Ling, Z.; Xu, F. Flexible and anisotropic strain sensor based on carbonized crepe paper with aligned cellulose fibers. Adv. Funct. Mater.2018, 28, 1802547.
Lee, W. S.; Kim, D.; Park, B.; Joh, H.; Woo, H. K.; Hong, Y. K.; Kim, T.; Ha, D. H.; Oh, S. J. Multiaxial and transparent strain sensors based on synergetically reinforced and orthogonally cracked heteronanocrystal solids. Adv. Funct. Mater.2019, 29, 1806714.
Miao, W. N.; Wang, D. Y.; Liu, Z. M.; Tang, J. Y.; Zhu, Z. P.; Wang, C.; Liu, H.; Wen, L.; Zheng, S.; Tian, Y. et al. Bioinspired self-healing liquid films for ultradurable electronics. ACS Nano2019, 13, 3225–3231.
Matsuhisa, N.; Chen, X. D.; Bao, Z. N.; Someya, T. Materials and structural designs of stretchable conductors. Chem. Soc. Rev.2019, 48, 2946–2966.
Guo, R. S.; Yu, Y.; Zeng, J. F.; Liu, X. Q.; Zhou, X. C.; Niu, L. Y.; Gao, T. T.; Li, K.; Yang, Y.; Zhou, F. et al. Biomimicking topographic elastomeric petals (e-petals) for omnidirectional stretchable and printable electronics. Adv. Sci.2015, 2, 1400021.
Wu, C. Y.; Tang, X.; Gan, L.; Li, W. F.; Zhang, J.; Wang, H.; Qin, Z. Y.; Zhang, T.; Zhou, T. T.; Huang, J. et al. High-adhesion stretchable electrode via cross-linking intensified electroless deposition on a biomimetic elastomeric micropore film. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces2019, 11, 20535–20544.
Liu, Z. Y.; Wang, X. T.; Qi, D. P.; Xu, C.; Yu, J. C.; Liu, Y. Q.; Jiang, Y.; Liedberg, B.; Chen, X. D. High-adhesion stretchable electrodes based on nanopile interlocking. Adv. Mater.2017, 29, 1603382.
Liu, Z. Y.; Wang, H.; Huang, P. G.; Huang, J. P.; Zhang, Y.; Wang, Y. Y.; Yu, M.; Chen, S. X.; Qi, D. P.; Wang, T. et al. Highly stable and stretchable conductive films through thermal-radiation-assisted metal encapsulation. Adv. Mater.2019, 31, 1901360.
Wang, Y.; Gong, S.; Gómez, D.; Ling, Y. Z.; Yap, L. W.; Simon, G. P.; Cheng, W. L. Unconventional Janus properties of enokitake-like gold nanowire films. ACS Nano2018, 12, 8717–8722.
Wang, Y.; Gong, S.; Wang, S. J.; Yang, X. Y.; Ling, Y. Z.; Yap, L. W.; Dong, D. S.; Simon, G. P.; Cheng, W. L. Standing enokitake-like nanowire films for highly stretchable elastronics. ACS Nano2018, 12, 9742–9749.
Zhu, B. W.; Gong, S.; Lin, F.; Wang, Y.; Ling, Y. Z.; An, T.; Cheng, W. L. Patterning vertically grown gold nanowire electrodes for intrinsically stretchable organic transistors. Adv. Electron. Mater.2019, 5, 1800509.
Sun, D. M.; Liu, C.; Ren, W. C.; Cheng, H. M. A Review of carbon nanotube- and graphene-based flexible thin-film transistors. Small2013, 9, 1188–1205.
Hong, J. Y.; Kim, W.; Choi, D.; Kong, J.; Park, H. S. Omnidirectionally stretchable and transparent graphene electrodes. ACS Nano2016, 10, 9446–9455.
Liu, N.; Chortos, A.; Lei, T.; Jin, L. H.; Kim, T. R.; Bae, W. G.; Zhu, C. X.; Wang, S. H.; Pfattner, R.; Chen, X. Y.; Sinclair, R.; Bao, Z. N. Ultratransparent and stretchable graphene electrodes. Sci. Adv.2017, 3, e1700159.
Han, J.; Lee, J. Y.; Lee, J.; Yeo, J. S. Highly stretchable and reliable, transparent and conductive entangled graphene mesh networks. Adv. Mater.2018, 30, 1704626.
Yan, S.; Zhang, G. Z.; Jiang, H. Y.; Li, F. B.; Zhang, L.; Xia, Y. H.; Wang, Z. S.; Wu, Y. K.; Li, H. J. Highly stretchable room-temperature self-healing conductors based on wrinkled graphene films for flexible electronics. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces2019, 11, 10736–10744.
Sun, F. Q.; Tian, M. W.; Sun, X. T.; Xu, T. L.; Liu, X. Q.; Zhu, S. F.; Zhang, X. J.; Qu, L. J. Stretchable conductive fibers of ultrahigh tensile strain and stable conductance enabled by a worm-shaped graphene microlayer. Nano Lett.2019, 19, 6592–6599.
Wang, Z. Y.; Liu, X.; Shen, X.; Han, N. M.; Wu, Y.; Zheng, Q. B.; Jia, J. J.; Wang, N.; Kim, J. K. An ultralight graphene honeycomb sandwich for stretchable light-emitting displays. Adv. Funct. Mater.2018, 28, 1707043.
Poldrack, R. A.; Farah, M. J. Progress and challenges in probing the human brain. Nature2015, 526, 371–379.
Kim, G. H.; Kim, K.; Lee, E.; An, T.; Choi, W.; Lim, G.; Shin, J. H. Recent progress on microelectrodes in neural interfaces. Materials2018, 11, 1995.
Hong, G. S.; Yang, X.; Zhou, T.; Lieber, C. M. Mesh electronics: A new paradigm for tissue-like brain probes. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.2018, 50, 33–41.
Im, C.; Seo, J. M. A review of electrodes for the electrical brain signal recording. Biomed. Eng. Lett.2016, 6, 104–112.
Liu, J.; Fu, T. M.; Cheng, Z. G.; Hong, G. S.; Zhou, T.; Jin, L. H.; Duvvuri, M.; Jiang, Z.; Kruskal, P.; Xie, C. et al. Syringe-injectable electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol.2015, 10, 629–636.
Fu, T. M.; Hong, G. S.; Zhou, T.; Schuhmann, T. G.; Viveros, R. D.; Lieber, C. M. Stable long-term chronic brain mapping at the singleneuron level. Nat. Methods2016, 13, 875–882.
Yang, X.; Zhou, T.; Zwang, T. J.; Hong, G. S.; Zhao, Y. L.; Viveros, R. D.; Fu, T. M.; Gao, T.; Lieber, C. M. Bioinspired neuron-like electronics. Nat. Mater.2019, 18, 510–517.
Wu, C. S.; Wang, A. C.; Ding, W. B.; Guo, H. Y.; Wang, Z. L. Triboelectric nanogenerator: A foundation of the energy for the new era. Adv. Energy Mater.2019, 9, 1802906.
Seol, M. L.; Woo, J. H.; Lee, D.; Im, H.; Hur, J.; Choi, Y. K. Nature-replicated nano-in-micro structures for triboelectric energy harvesting. Small2014, 10, 3887–3894.
Bui, V. T.; Zhou, Q. T.; Kim, J. N.; Oh, J. H.; Han, K. W.; Choi, H. S.; Kim, S. W.; Oh, I. K. Treefrog toe pad-inspired micropatterning for high-power triboelectric nanogenerator. Adv. Funct. Mater.2019, 29, 1901638.
Ha, M.; Lim, S.; Cho, S.; Lee, Y.; Na, S.; Baig, C.; Ko, H. Skin-inspired hierarchical polymer architectures with gradient stiffness for spacer-free, ultrathin, and highly sensitive triboelectric sensors. ACS Nano2018, 12, 3964–3974.
Chen, H. T.; Song, Y.; Guo, H.; Miao, L. M.; Chen, X. X.; Su, Z. M.; Zhang, H. X. Hybrid porous micro structured finger skin inspired self-powered electronic skin system for pressure sensing and sliding detection. Nano Energy2018, 51, 496–503.
Choi, D.; Kim, D. W.; Yoo, D.; Cha, K. J.; La, M.; Kim, D. S. Spontaneous occurrence of liquid-solid contact electrification in nature: Toward a robust triboelectric nanogenerator inspired by the natural lotus leaf. Nano Energy2017, 36, 250–259.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Jidong Shi from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for helpful discussions. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21790393 and 51972073) and Frontier Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB32030100).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, H., Lv, S. & Fang, Y. Bio-inspired micro/nanostructures for flexible and stretchable electronics. Nano Res. 13, 1244–1252 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2628-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2628-9