A flexible viscoelastic coupling cable with self-adapted electrical properties and anti-impact performance toward shapeable electronic devices

A novel flexible cable with self-adapted electrical conductivity and anti-impact characteristic has been developed via combining the elastic PDMS shell and viscous CNTs/STG (shear-thickening gel) string. Excitingly, the conductivity of the cable can re-cover to the initial state while the deformation of the sensor is still maintained, therefore the cable exhibits a rarely dynamic sensitivity which can be applied on various targets with uneven surfaces. This flexible cable shows a high stretch fracture strain (151%) and its resistance is linearly dependent on the stretch strain and bending angle. The stretch gauge factor of the cable is 1.18 which guarantees it tracing joints of human body with walking, jumping and squatting. More importantly, due to the energy dissipation nature of the STG, the cable shows excellent anti-impact performance by buffering 70.5% impact energy and it can detect the high energy stimuli. An elastic-viscous combining mechanism has proposed to discuss the mechanic-electric coupling performance and the creep of viscous STG string plays a key role in determining the self-adapted conductivity. Because of the self-adjusting electric property, anti-impact performance, and sensing behavior, this cable can be further attached on the Kevlar fabric to form a wearable electric device to measure the distribution of the pressure.