Flexible, wearable electronics rely on soft conductors to interface with the human body, while rigid metal circuits are used to process and transmit signals. However, the integration of these mechanically dissimilar materials remains a major challenge, as they often separate during stretching or deformation, thus leading to unstable signals or device failure.
To solve this challenge, Prof. Xu Bingang and his team have developed a new interface strategy based on a functionalised conductive fabric. The team placed fabric between soft conductive electrodes and rigid metal conductors to create a double-sided mechanical interlocking structure. The porous textile network allows adhesives to penetrate from both sides, thus forming robust “thread–hole” connections that significantly enhance bonding between soft and rigid materials.
This new textile-enabled interface achieves an interfacial toughness of 730 J m⁻², a record-high value that surpasses that of existing methods, including chemical approaches, while maintaining stable electrical performance under large deformations. Even when the soft electrodes eventually fracture, the textile-reinforced connection remains intact. This strategy shows broad potential for highly stable electromyography recordings, hydrogel bioelectronics, and replaceable epidermal electrodes.
By using functionalised conductive fabric as an interfacial strategy, Prof Xu’s team demonstrates how textile science and engineering can play an important role in advancing flexible electronics, wearable devices, and bio-integrated systems. The work has been published as “Double‐Sided Mechanical Interlocking Enables Soft‐Rigid Conductive Interfaces with a Record High Toughness for Flexible Electronics" in a leading journal called Advanced Materials. The first author is Dr Gang Li, a former postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Xu, who was supported by the PolyU Postdoc Matching Fund Scheme.
