The Evolution of Flexible Electronics: From Nature, Beyond Nature, and To Nature

Abstract

The flourishing development of multifunctional flexible electronics cannot leave the beneficial role of nature, which provides continuous inspiration in their material, structural, and functional designs. During the evolution of flexible electronics, some originated from nature, some were even beyond nature, and others were implantable or biodegradable eventually to nature. Therefore, the relationship between flexible electronics and nature is undoubtedly vital since harmony between nature and technology evolution would promote the sustainable development. Herein, materials selection and functionality design for flexible electronics that are mostly inspired from nature are first introduced with certain functionality even beyond nature. Then, frontier advances on flexible electronics including the main individual components (i.e., energy (the power source) and the sensor (the electric load)) are presented from nature, beyond nature, and to nature with the aim of enlightening the harmonious relationship between the modern electronics technology and nature. Finally, critical issues in next-generation flexible electronics are discussed to provide possible solutions and new insights in prospective exploration directions.

Development of Flexible, Conductive and Biocompatible Chitosan-Based Miniaturized Bioelectrodes for Enzymatic Glucose Biofuel Cells

“…For this reason, miniaturization strategies are of interest for the development of small prototypes of such biodevices. In this sense, chitosan has the ability of forming films that could be used as electrodes in the form of a path or that could be integrated in existing systems such as screen-printed, interdigitated electrodes or in flexible electronics [4][5][8] [9]. Thus, chitosan thanks to their biocompatibility characteristics and its film forming ability has been used to develop a biopolymeric membrane of chitosan doped with carbon black that presents the capability of acting as a support for enzyme immobilization and as self-standing electrode at the same time [1].…”

Programmable patterned MoS2 film by direct laser writing for health-related signals monitoring

“…As the basic and widely used devices, flexible strain sensors have attracted increasing attention ( Amjadi et al., 2016 ; An et al., 2001 ; Liu et al., 2021 ; Wang et al., 2020c ). High-quality, flexible electronic materials are the core of high-performance flexible electronic sensors, and the development of novel electronic materials has extensively promoted the development of flexible electronic technology ( He et al., 2019 ; Sun et al., 2019 ; Wang et al., 2020b , 2021 ; Yan et al., 2021 ). As burgeoning flexible electronic materials, two-dimensional (2D) materials, especially transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), have been widely studied due to their unique physical and chemical properties that occur due to their atomic thickness ( Jiang et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020a ; Zheng et al., 2021 ; Zhu et al., 2021 ).…”

Hive‐Inspired Multifunctional Wood‐Nanotechnology‐Derived Membranes with a Double‐Layer Conductive Network Structure for Flexible Electronics

“…Flexible electronic technology is an emerging electronic technology that makes organic or inorganic active materials on flexible substrates. [1] There currently is an enormous and growing demand for flexible electronics for personal health monitoring equipment, intelligent robots, and human-computer interaction systems. Recently, flexible electronic tech-Flexible substrates based on natural polymers have attracted increasing attention due to their potential eco-friendly properties.…”