Surface energy-directed assembly of liquid metal particles for intelligent wearable electronics.

Yubing Liu, Siqing Yuan, Kaiyi Xu, Linquan Jiang, Zhimin Chai, Xinchun Lu

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in iScience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed

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1 · What the graph read from it

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Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Yubing LiuBeijing Key Laboratory of Atomic-Scale Precision Manufacturing and Cross-Scale Device Fabrication, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Siqing YuanBeijing Key Laboratory of Atomic-Scale Precision Manufacturing and Cross-Scale Device Fabrication, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Kaiyi XuWeiyang College, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Linquan JiangCollege of Business, Beijing Union University, Beijing 100025, China.

Zhimin ChaiBeijing Key Laboratory of Atomic-Scale Precision Manufacturing and Cross-Scale Device Fabrication, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Xinchun LuBeijing Key Laboratory of Atomic-Scale Precision Manufacturing and Cross-Scale Device Fabrication, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Liquid metals (LMs) are promising for flexible electronics owing to their high electrical conductivity and inherent room temperature deformability. However, their high surface tension poses major technical barriers for high-resolution patterning. While conventional pre-patterned metal seeding layers can enable deterministic LM patterning, this approach inevitably adds redundant fabrication steps and increases process complexity. Here, we develop a seeding-layer-free surface energy-directed assembly process based on ultrasonically dispersed, sodium alginate-stabilized LM particle dispersions, which enables high-precision LM patterning on various stretchable substrates. The fabricated strain sensors exhibit <200 ms response and >1,000-cycle stability, while the LM electrode arrays paired with a convolutional neural network achieve 94% accuracy in gesture recognition. This work establishes a high-precision, environmentally benign, and broadly applicable platform for next-generation LM-based flexible and stretchable electronics.

Indexed as

directed assemblyelectrode arraysliquid metalstrain sensorssurface energy

Identifiers

PMID42835269

DOI10.1016/j.isci.2026.117629

PMCPMC13635518

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.