Liquid-in-liquid printing of 3D and mechanically tunable conductive hydrogels

Xinjian Xie, Zhonggang Xu, Xin Yu, Hong Jiang, Hongjiao Li () and Wenqian Feng ()
Additional contact information
Xinjian Xie: Sichuan University
Zhonggang Xu: Sichuan University
Xin Yu: Sichuan University
Hong Jiang: Sichuan University
Hongjiao Li: Sichuan University
Wenqian Feng: Sichuan University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Conductive hydrogels require tunable mechanical properties, high conductivity and complicated 3D structures for advanced functionality in (bio)applications. Here, we report a straightforward strategy to construct 3D conductive hydrogels by programable printing of aqueous inks rich in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) inside of oil. In this liquid-in-liquid printing method, assemblies of PEDOT:PSS colloidal particles originating from the aqueous phase and polydimethylsiloxane surfactants from the other form an elastic film at the liquid-liquid interface, allowing trapping of the hydrogel precursor inks in the designed 3D nonequilibrium shapes for subsequent gelation and/or chemical cross-linking. Conductivities up to 301 S m−1 are achieved for a low PEDOT:PSS content of 9 mg mL−1 in two interpenetrating hydrogel networks. The effortless printability enables us to tune the hydrogels’ components and mechanical properties, thus facilitating the use of these conductive hydrogels as electromicrofluidic devices and to customize near-field communication (NFC) implantable biochips in the future.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-40004-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-40004-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40004-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().