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Soft electronics

3D printing of hydrogel electronics

Nature Electronics volume 5, pages 838–839 (2022)Cite this article

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An embedded 3D printing technique — which uses an alginate–polyacrylamide hydrogel supporting matrix and a conductive silver–hydrogel ink — can be used to fabricate hydrogel electronic devices containing various different embedded circuits.

Hydrogel-based electronic devices are ideal candidates for creating human–machine interfaces due to their softness, stretchability and biocompatibility1. However, unlike traditional electronics, which has a mature manufacturing system, hydrogel electronics still requires the development of appropriate manufacturing processes and material selection. 3D printing technology is one potential route to manufacturing hydrogel electronics due to its convenience, versatility and flexibility. Direct ink writing and digital light processing 3D printing methods have, for instance, been used to make soft sensors2, soft robots3 and soft luminescent devices4. However, existing printing methods encounter challenges when trying to manufacture integrated devices that require multi-material printing and interfacial bonding between heterogeneous materials5. In addition, conventional printable conductive materials — such as ionic conductors6 and organic conductors like poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate7 — have relatively low conductivity, which can limit device performance. Writing in Nature Electronics, Yue Hui, Liang Tao, Nanjia Zhou and colleagues now report an embedded 3D printing method that can print fully integrated hydrogel electronics with robust interfacial bonding and high electrical conductivity8.

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Fig. 1: Embedded 3D printing of all-hydrogel electronic devices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Shaoxing Qu

  2. Eye Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Shaoxing Qu

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  1. Shaoxing Qu
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Correspondence to Shaoxing Qu.

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Qu, S. 3D printing of hydrogel electronics. Nat Electron 5, 838–839 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00900-0

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