Liquid metals offer high conductivity and stretchability, but their instability limits practical applications in flexible electronics. We present two complementary approaches to overcome these challenges by integrating liquid metal particles with polymers via printing-based fabrication. First, we demonstrate meter-scale electronic fibers with high toughness and conductivity using heterostructure printing and post-processing. Second, we develop a self-packaged stretchable circuit, where a single printing step yields both conductive and insulating layers using ligand-bound liquid metal particles. These scalable, material-efficient strategies enable robust, wearable, and soft electronic systems. The findings, published in Nature Communications and Sciecne Advances (May 2025), highlight new pathways toward simplified manufacturing of stretchable devices.

- Author (Pusan National University): Gun-Hee Lee(Department of Optics and Mechatronics Engineering)

- Title of original paper • Journal, Web Link

1) Meter-scale heterostructure printing for high-toughness fiber electrodes in intelligent digital apparel

  • Nature Communications, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59703-4 

2) Self-packaged stretchable printed circuits with ligand-bound liquid metal particles in elastomer 

  • Nature Communications, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60118-4 

3) Phase-change metal ink with pH-controlled chemical sintering for versatile and scalable fabrication of variable stiffness electronics

  • Science Advances, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adv4921

- Contact e-mail: gunheel@pusan.ac.kr