A Dynamically Stabilizing, All-Soft and Highly Stretchable Liquid Metal-Based Power Device

Soft electronics require equally soft power sources, which have been designed to be flexible but remain limited in their stretchability to date. Here, a highly stretchable liquid metal-based power device is reported, achieved through an all-soft design. Inspired by the soft architecture and modular arrangements of electrocytes, individual electrochemical cells are constructed by integrating liquid metal, hydrogel electrolyte, silver grease, and elastomeric encapsulation. Serial and parallel cell configurations enable reliable output power scale up. Such an all-soft design effectively overcomes mechanical mismatching, allowing the device to maintain stability and output performance under large deformations, such as bending, twisting, and stretching (>350% strain). When the device is operating under mechanical deformations, the liquid metal surface recovers from oxidation to improve output performance. The dynamic mechanical robustness and electrical output stability of the power device are demonstrated in powering model electronic circuits, bio-inspired sensors, and digital wristwatches. This work extends the stretchability of soft power devices with an all-soft, scalable design.