Fabrication of agarose hydrogel with patterned silver nanowires for motion sensor

Abstract

In this work, a facile strategy is proposed to construct stretchable electronics based on agarose hydrogels. The hot agarose solution is casted onto a template with patterned Ag nanowires, endowing agarose hydrogel with patterned conductive surface. After further heating treatment, Ag nanowires can be embedded into the agarose hydrogel, which improves the stability of Ag pattern and has no obvious effect on the conductivity of hydrogels. The agarose hydrogel with patterned Ag nanowires is certified to be an effective stretchable electrode to record the motion of joints, which has great potential applications in the field of wearable devices.