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Self-reinforcing graphene coatings on 3D printed elastomers for flexible radio frequency antennas and strain sensors

The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) necessitates the development of electronic components with various form factors and mechanical properties. 3D printing is an effective tool to realize objects with arbitrary form factors. Various 3D printable materials have recently been commercialized; among them, stretchable materials are particularly useful in the IoT because they enable adaptability in the dimensional change of the electronics. Most of these stretchable materials are, however, not electrically conductive; conductive coating can enable the functionality. Here, we propose a self-reinforcing conductive coating strategy, which reduced graphene oxide (RGO) self-assembles to wrap graphene nanoflakes (GNF) as a conductive binder that can also achieve mechanical integrity. The conductivity of the GNF-RGO coating reaches 4.47 × 104 S m−1. To demonstrate the potential applications of the GNF-RGO coating, applying the coating on 3D printed porous elastomers enabled flexible radio frequency (RF) antennas and strain sensors. The RF antenna shows high radiation efficiency and maintains excellent performance under bending conditions. The coating also produces a strain sensor with a gauge factor of ∼13 up to 40% of strain. We foresee that the electrically conductive GNF-RGO composite coating can provide versatile functionalization strategy in flexible electronics and in wearable biomedical devices.