Nanomaterial-based Stretchable Conducting Hydrogels

Electrical interfacing of neural tissue is key for the development of new diagnostics and treatments of neurological diseases and disorders, and for the development of brain-machine interfaces.

One major challenge is that neural tissue near electrodes is damaged over time, much due to the huge mechanical mismatch between the implanted stiff materials and the soft deformable neural tissue (~1-200 kPa).

Recent advances have yielded high-performance elastomer-nanomaterials composites with initial conductivities >> 10 000 S/cm that can be stretched to > 100 % strain, however such composites are relatively stiff (> 10 MPa) and thus effectively rigid when in contact with the soft tissue.

To date there are no examples of stretchable conductors which combine high conductivity (> 1000 S/cm), sufficient stretchability (> 50 %) and ultra-softness (