An intrinsically stretchable conductor has emerged as a vital component for flexible and stretchable electronics such as wearable sensors/actuators, and implantable devices for neural and cardiac stimulation. The conductivity of the stretchable composite is critical to achieve excellent performance. Furthermore, biocompatibility and high softness are required to achieve conformal contact on curvilinear body system. However, it is very challenging for the conductors to have high conductivity, softness, and biocompatibility at the same time. We explored an exclusive nanocomposite for the soft-bioelectronic system, which accompanies biocompatibility, softness as well as high conductivity. We reinforced biocompatibility of the rubber composite by encapsulating ultra-long silver nanowires with thick gold nanoshell (Ag-Au NW) to overcome the toxicity arising from pristine silver nanowires alone while maintaining high conductivity. The rubber composites exhibit reliable electrical performance when they are softly stretched due to micromesh structure formation of Ag-Au NW nanocomposites. As a result, the biocompatible nanocomposite exhibits high conductivity of 41,850 S/cm (max: 72,600 S/cm) and can be stretched up to 266% (max: 840%). We demonstrated wearable and implantable soft-bioelectronics system using our biocompatible nanocomposite which laminated on the human skin and swine heart to conduct continuous electrophysiological recording and delivering electroceutical treatment.

Highly conductive and stretchable nanocomposite using Ag-Au core-shell nanowires: Applications in wearable and implantable devices

2019 Fall National Meeting

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