Stretchable wrinkle-structured liquid metal sandwich films enable strain-insensitive electromagnetic shielding and Joule heating

Abstract

Stretchable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shields with strain-insensitive EMI shielding and Joule heating performances are highly desirable to be integrated with wearable electronics. To explore the possibility of applying geometric design in elastomeric liquid metal (LM) composites and fully investigate the influence of LM geometry on stretchable EMI shielding and Joule heating, multifunctional wrinkle-structured LM/Ecoflex sandwich films with excellent stretchability are developed. The denser LM wrinkle enables not only better electrical conduction, higher shielding effectiveness (SE) and steady-state temperature, but also enhanced strain-stable far-field/near-field shielding performance and Joule-heating capability. More strikingly, compared to most previously reported stretchable EMI shields or electric heaters, the densely wrinkled film could achieve multidirectional strain-insensitive shielding behavior with slightly strain-enhanced or strain-invariant EMI SE under stretching parallel or perpendicular to the electric field of EM waves, as well as show ideal strain-insensitive Joule-heating behavior over a larger strain range of 250%. The current findings suggest an effective strategy for developing stretchable LM-based composites with strain-insensitive properties.