Preparation Of Flexible Conductive Films And The Research Of Their Sensory Properties

Wearable electronic is a rising industry involving new materials or new process for manufacturing.Portable devices have become lightweight,flexible,and even stretchable such that skin-like electronics are widely applicable,including in biomedical devices,soft robotics,and human/machine interfaces.Rendering these devices soft and flexible is highly desirable,as this would enable them to interact seamlessly with human skin and improve their wearing comfort.(1)We demonstrate a convenient but effective method to fabricate flexible conducting films.These films consist of electrospun polyurethane(PU)fibers as the flexible substrate onto which copper was deposited.These Cu-PU films have excellent mechanical pliability,and their resistance only increases slightly after extensive folding,even when folded into a paper crane with a resistance of 1.8 ?.Furthermore,the Cu-PU films exhibit stable Joule electrothermal performance.The Cu-PU-based heating glove could be heated to 40 °C in 30 s by applying 2 V.Furthermore,the Cu-PU films can sense tension strength stably.The simple but effective procedure presented here is suitable to fabricate flexible conducting film and may also promote the development of portable and flexible electronic products.(2)With the development of virtual reality and soft actuators,the flexible somatosensory system is becoming an essential tool for researchers to collect external stimulus and control the movement of robots.Herein,a novel,facile and low-cost selective laser-sintering strategy was reported to fabricate soft conducting films via sintering nylon,and graphite mixed powder,which allows multiple somatosensitive capabilities toward the detection of touching,stretching,and bending.The soft materials present the combination of high sensitivity and well repeatability.We further construct a flexible robotic arm,which has the nylon-graphite sensor on the surface that simultaneously enables active haptic and proprioceptive sensing for different objects with various weight,shape,and roughness.Another highlight is the efficient and straightforward fabricating strategy with no solvent involved throughout the fabrication process,which is consistent with the requirements of the green chemistry for the manufacture of functional materials.