IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-32126-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrated 3D printing of flexible electroluminescent devices and soft robots

Author

Listed:
  • Pei Zhang

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Iek Man Lei

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Guangda Chen

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Jingsen Lin

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Xingmei Chen

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Jiajun Zhang

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Chengcheng Cai

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Xiangyu Liang

    (Southern University of Science and Technology)

  • Ji Liu

    (Southern University of Science and Technology
    Southern University of Science and Technology
    Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Human-Augmentation and Rehabilitation Robotics in Universities, Southern University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

Flexible and stretchable light emitting devices are driving innovation in myriad applications, such as wearable and functional electronics, displays and soft robotics. However, the development of flexible electroluminescent devices via conventional techniques remains laborious and cost-prohibitive. Here, we report a facile and easily-accessible route for fabricating a class of flexible electroluminescent devices and soft robotics via direct ink writing-based 3D printing. 3D printable ion conducting, electroluminescent and insulating dielectric inks were developed, enabling facile and on-demand creation of flexible and stretchable electroluminescent devices with good fidelity. Robust interfacial adhesion with the multilayer electroluminescent devices endowed the 3D printed devices with attractive electroluminescent performance. Integrated our 3D printed electroluminescent devices with a soft quadrupedal robot and sensing units, an artificial camouflage that can instantly self-adapt to the environment by displaying matching color was fabricated, laying an efficient framework for the next generation soft camouflages.

Suggested Citation

  • Pei Zhang & Iek Man Lei & Guangda Chen & Jingsen Lin & Xingmei Chen & Jiajun Zhang & Chengcheng Cai & Xiangyu Liang & Ji Liu, 2022. "Integrated 3D printing of flexible electroluminescent devices and soft robots," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-32126-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32126-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32126-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-32126-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark A. Skylar-Scott & Jochen Mueller & Claas W. Visser & Jennifer A. Lewis, 2019. "Voxelated soft matter via multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing," Nature, Nature, vol. 575(7782), pages 330-335, November.
    2. Jérémie Teyssier & Suzanne V. Saenko & Dirk van der Marel & Michel C. Milinkovitch, 2015. "Photonic crystals cause active colour change in chameleons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-7, May.
    3. Michael Wehner & Ryan L. Truby & Daniel J. Fitzgerald & Bobak Mosadegh & George M. Whitesides & Jennifer A. Lewis & Robert J. Wood, 2016. "An integrated design and fabrication strategy for entirely soft, autonomous robots," Nature, Nature, vol. 536(7617), pages 451-455, August.
    4. Ryan L. Truby & Jennifer A. Lewis, 2016. "Printing soft matter in three dimensions," Nature, Nature, vol. 540(7633), pages 371-378, December.
    5. Xiang Shi & Yong Zuo & Peng Zhai & Jiahao Shen & Yangyiwei Yang & Zhen Gao & Meng Liao & Jingxia Wu & Jiawei Wang & Xiaojie Xu & Qi Tong & Bo Zhang & Bingjie Wang & Xuemei Sun & Lihua Zhang & Qibing P, 2021. "Large-area display textiles integrated with functional systems," Nature, Nature, vol. 591(7849), pages 240-245, March.
    6. Jennifer A. Lewis & Bok Y. Ahn, 2015. "Three-dimensional printed electronics," Nature, Nature, vol. 518(7537), pages 42-43, February.
    7. Huibin Sun & Shujuan Liu & Wenpeng Lin & Kenneth Yin Zhang & Wen Lv & Xiao Huang & Fengwei Huo & Huiran Yang & Gareth Jenkins & Qiang Zhao & Wei Huang, 2014. "Smart responsive phosphorescent materials for data recording and security protection," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, May.
    8. Zhouyue Lei & Peiyi Wu, 2019. "A highly transparent and ultra-stretchable conductor with stable conductivity during large deformation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Hyeonseok Kim & Joonhwa Choi & Kyun Kyu Kim & Phillip Won & Sukjoon Hong & Seung Hwan Ko, 2021. "Biomimetic chameleon soft robot with artificial crypsis and disruptive coloration skin," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuxuan Sun & Liu Wang & Yangyang Ni & Huajian Zhang & Xiang Cui & Jiahao Li & Yinbo Zhu & Ji Liu & Shiwu Zhang & Yong Chen & Mujun Li, 2023. "3D printing of thermosets with diverse rheological and functional applicabilities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Tie Mei & Chang Qing Chen, 2023. "In-memory mechanical computing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Baofu Ding & Pengyuan Zeng & Ziyang Huang & Lixin Dai & Tianshu Lan & Hao Xu & Yikun Pan & Yuting Luo & Qiangmin Yu & Hui-Ming Cheng & Bilu Liu, 2022. "A 2D material–based transparent hydrogel with engineerable interference colours," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Won Bae Han & Gwan-Jin Ko & Kang-Gon Lee & Donghak Kim & Joong Hoon Lee & Seung Min Yang & Dong-Je Kim & Jeong-Woong Shin & Tae-Min Jang & Sungkeun Han & Honglei Zhou & Heeseok Kang & Jun Hyeon Lim & , 2023. "Ultra-stretchable and biodegradable elastomers for soft, transient electronics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Russell A Ligon & Kevin J McGraw, 2018. "A chorus of color: hierarchical and graded information content of rapid color change signals in chameleons," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 29(5), pages 1075-1087.
    6. Elvis K. Boahen & Baohai Pan & Hyukmin Kweon & Joo Sung Kim & Hanbin Choi & Zhengyang Kong & Dong Jun Kim & Jin Zhu & Wu Bin Ying & Kyung Jin Lee & Do Hwan Kim, 2022. "Ultrafast, autonomous self-healable iontronic skin exhibiting piezo-ionic dynamics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Yunjiang Wang & Xinben Hu & Luhang Cui & Xuan Xiao & Keji Yang & Yongjian Zhu & Haoran Jin, 2024. "Bioinspired handheld time-share driven robot with expandable DoFs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Qiwei Li & Zaozao Chen & Ying Zhang & Shuang Ding & Haibo Ding & Luping Wang & Zhuoying Xie & Yifu Fu & Mengxiao Wei & Shengnan Liu & Jialun Chen & Xuan Wang & Zhongze Gu, 2023. "Imaging cellular forces with photonic crystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Dongxu Ma & Ming Ji & Hongbo Yi & Qingyu Wang & Fu Fan & Bo Feng & Mengjie Zheng & Yiqin Chen & Huigao Duan, 2024. "Pushing the thinness limit of silver films for flexible optoelectronic devices via ion-beam thinning-back process," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Minju Song & Yoonkyum Kim & Du San Baek & Ho Young Kim & Da Hwi Gu & Haiyang Li & Benjamin V. Cunning & Seong Eun Yang & Seung Hwae Heo & Seunghyun Lee & Minhyuk Kim & June Sung Lim & Hu Young Jeong &, 2023. "3D microprinting of inorganic porous materials by chemical linking-induced solidification of nanocrystals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Hayato Saigo & Makoto Naruse & Kazuya Okamura & Hirokazu Hori & Izumi Ojima, 2019. "Analysis of Soft Robotics Based on the Concept of Category of Mobility," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-12, March.
    12. Van Hiep Nguyen & Saewoong Oh & Manmatha Mahato & Rassoul Tabassian & Hyunjoon Yoo & Seong-Gyu Lee & Mousumi Garai & Kwang Jin Kim & Il-Kwon Oh, 2024. "Functionally antagonistic polyelectrolyte for electro-ionic soft actuator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Wenzhong Yan & Shuguang Li & Mauricio Deguchi & Zhaoliang Zheng & Daniela Rus & Ankur Mehta, 2023. "Origami-based integration of robots that sense, decide, and respond," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    14. Pengwei Wang & Xiaohao Ma & Zhiqiang Lin & Fan Chen & Zijian Chen & Hong Hu & Hailong Xu & Xinyi Zhang & Yuqing Shi & Qiyao Huang & Yuanjing Lin & Zijian Zheng, 2024. "Well-defined in-textile photolithography towards permeable textile electronics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Bin Wang & Einstom Engay & Peter R. Stubbe & Saeed Z. Moghaddam & Esben Thormann & Kristoffer Almdal & Aminul Islam & Yi Yang, 2022. "Stiffness control in dual color tomographic volumetric 3D printing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Shibo Zou & Sergio Picella & Jelle Vries & Vera G. Kortman & Aimée Sakes & Johannes T. B. Overvelde, 2024. "A retrofit sensing strategy for soft fluidic robots," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Yue Zhang & Kangkang Liu & Tao Liu & Chujun Ni & Di Chen & Jiamei Guo & Chang Liu & Jian Zhou & Zheng Jia & Qian Zhao & Pengju Pan & Tao Xie, 2021. "Differential diffusion driven far-from-equilibrium shape-shifting of hydrogels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Guorui Li & Tuck-Whye Wong & Benjamin Shih & Chunyu Guo & Luwen Wang & Jiaqi Liu & Tao Wang & Xiaobo Liu & Jiayao Yan & Baosheng Wu & Fajun Yu & Yunsai Chen & Yiming Liang & Yaoting Xue & Chengjun Wan, 2023. "Bioinspired soft robots for deep-sea exploration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    19. Liqing Ai & Weikang Lin & Chunyan Cao & Pengyu Li & Xuejiao Wang & Dong Lv & Xin Li & Zhengbao Yang & Xi Yao, 2023. "Tough soldering for stretchable electronics by small-molecule modulated interfacial assemblies," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. Rongzhou Lin & Han-Joon Kim & Sippanat Achavananthadith & Ze Xiong & Jason K. W. Lee & Yong Lin Kong & John S. Ho, 2022. "Digitally-embroidered liquid metal electronic textiles for wearable wireless systems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-32126-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.