Jeong-Yun Sun's blog

Research paper.

Title:  Ionic Skin

Authors: J.-Y. Sun, C. Keplinger, G.M. Whitesides, Z. Suo

• Jeong-Yun Sun, Xuanhe Zhao, Widusha R.K. Illeperuma, Kyu Hwan Oh, David J. Mooney, Joost J. Vlassak, Zhigang Suo. Highly stretchable and tough hydrogels. Nature 489, 133-136 (2012).
• Watch movie on stretchy and tough gels
• Suplementary Information and Movies
• Nature News and Views, A hard concept in soft matter, by Kenneth R. Shull.

For a flexible electronic device integrating inorganic materials on a polymer substrate, the polymer can deform substantially, but the inorganic materials usually fracture at small strains.  This paper describes an approach to make such a device highly stretchable.  A polyimide substrate is first coated with a thin layer of an elastomer, on top of which SiN_x islands are fabricated.  When the substrate is stretched to a large strain, the SiN_x islands remain intact.  Calculations confirm that the elastomer reduces the strain in the S