Soft Electronic Platforms Combining Elastomeric Stretchability and Biodegradability

Soft and stretchable electronic devices are expected to offer technological advances in the field of robotics, human–machine interfacing, and healthcare. Employing biodegradable elastomers, hydrogels, and nontoxic conductors would add significant value to and minimize the ecological impact of such disposable and transient electronic applications. Here, the biodegradable and photo‐crosslinkable elastomer poly(glycerol sebacic) acrylate (PGSA) is characterized for its use in soft and stretchable electronics. Its mechanical properties are investigated in terms of their chemical composition and compared to commonly used gelatin hydrogels. Furthermore, these materials are combined with interconnects made of liquid Galinstan in order to create functional substrates with certified biodegradability under ISO standards. The combination of these materials produces elastic circuit boards that act as soft platforms for body‐mounted sensors or biodegradable stretchable light‐emitting devices. These soft platforms reveal linear elongations at a break of 130% to 350% and similar moduli to nondegradable elastomers and human tissue, without any decrease in conductivity. ... mehrAdvanced applications in biofriendly packaging, soft robotics, and healthcare will greatly benefit from these biodegradable devices.