Ultra-Flexible "Ionic E-Skin" for Direct Communication Between Biological Systems and Electronics

虽然开发一种新型的“电子皮肤”（离子电子皮肤），可以弥合电子和生物系统之间的差距的原始项目尚未完成，研究员能够在追求原始目标的同时做出一个侧面的发现。具体来说，研究员发现了一种制造超柔性，可拉伸滤色器的策略。这些滤色器不仅具有上级于所有先前文献实例的机械性质，而且即使在重复变形之后也显著地显示出性能劣化。虽然这不是我们最初的目标，但实际上，这些结果具有重要意义，主要有两个原因。首先，尽管存在依赖于光学现象的超柔性传感器和包含光学元件的可穿戴设备的许多示例，但具有匹配机械特性的滤色器还不存在。由于滤色器在许多技术中简单但高度相关，因此极可变形滤色器的发明开辟了在需要不寻常的形状因子或与超柔性光学器件集成的情况下使用的可能性。其次，发现的策略不仅限于所使用的演示材料。相反，该策略代表了一种通用的方法，并且可以与遵循该方法的基本原理的材料的任何组合一起使用。因此，我们能够产生一个出版物（Ordinario等。例如，高级可选材料2018，6，1800851），并在国际会议（MRS秋季会议和展览2018年，波士顿，MA，美国）上展示工作。

Although the original project to develop a new type of "e-skin” (ionic e-skin) that can bridge the gap between electronic and biological systems is not yet complete, the Fellow was able to make a side discovery while in pursuit of the original goal. Specifically, the Fellow discovered a strategy for making ultraflexible, stretchable color filters. Not only do these color filters possess mechanical properties superior to all previous literature examples, they also remarkably show no performance degradation even after repeated deformation. Although it was not the original objective that we were aiming for, in reality these results were significant for two main reasons. First, although numerous examples of ultraflexible sensors reliant on optical phenomena and wearable devices containing optical elements exist, color filters with matching mechanical properties did not yet exist. As color filters are simple yet highly-relevant in many technologies, the invention of an extremely deformable color filter opens up possibilities for use where unusual form factors or integration with ultraflexible optical devices is necessary. Second, the discovered strategy is not just limited to the demonstrates materials used. Rather, the strategy represents a generalized method and can be used with any combination of materials that adheres to the underlying principles of the method. As a result, we were able to produce one publication (Ordinario et. al., Adv. Opt. Mater. 2018, 6, 1800851) and present the work at an international conference (MRS Fall Meeting and Exhibit 2018, Boston, MA, USA).