Highly stable and strain-insensitive metal film conductors via manipulating strain distribution

Abstract

Metal film-based stretchable conductors are essential elements of flexible electronics for wearable, biomedical, and robotic applications, which require strain-insensitive high conductivity over a wide strain range and excellent cyclic stability. However, they suffer from serious electrical failure under monotonic and cyclic tensile loading at a small strain due to the uncontrolled film cracking behavior. Here, we propose a novel in-plane crack control strategy of engineering hierarchical microstructures to achieve outstanding electromechanical performance via harnessing the strain distribution in metal films. The wrinkles delay the crack initiation at undercuts which should be the most vulnerable sites during the stretching process. The surface protrusions/grooves/undercuts inhibit the crack propagation because of the effective strain redistribution. In addition, hierarchical microstructures significantly improve cyclic stability due to the strong interfacial adhesion and stable crack patterns. The metal film-based conductors exhibit ultrahigh strain-insensitive conductivity (1.7 × 10⁷ S m⁻¹), negligible resistance change (ΔR/R₀ = 0.007) over an ultra-wide strain range (>200%), and excellent cyclic strain durability (>15 000 cycles at 100% strain). A range of metal films was explored to establish the universality of this strategy, including ductile copper and silver, as well as brittle molybdenum and high entropy alloy. We demonstrate the strain-insensitive electrical functionality of a metal film-based conductor in a flexible light-emitting diode circuit.