Highly conductive and ultrarobust elastic conductors for stretchable electronics
- Tong Zheng
- Shengxin Xiang
- Qiongfeng Shi
- Jianwei Li
- Xiao Wei
- Lei Liu
- Chenhui Xu
- Shengshun Duan
- Pinzhen Chen
- Xinkai Xie
- Litao Sun
- Jun Wu
2026-06-19
Elastic conductors are vital for flexible electronics, but the high filler concentrations conventionally required to achieve metallic conductivity severely degrade mechanical properties. Here, we report a poor solvent–induced interfacial self-assembly strategy to fabricate robust elastic conductors. This approach yields a resilient top polymer domain and a bottom liquid metal (LM) polymer interpenetrating conductive domain. Consequently, the conductors achieve exceptional conductivity (3.33 × 10 6 siemens per meter), extreme stretchability (>1400% strain), and high toughness (>30 megapascals) at a low LM loading (~15% volume proportion). By regulating the self-assembly behavior of LM nanoparticles in elastomers, our method overcomes the traditional trade-off between electrical and mechanical performance. Demonstrating its practical utility, we constructed a wireless stretchable system for monitoring the temperature and motion of living organisms, highlighting its broad applicability in high-performance wearable and implantable electronics.