NASA NTRS2024
Liquid metal (LM) elastomer composites offer promising potential in soft robotics, wearable electronics, and human-machine interfaces. Direct ink write (DIW) 3D printing offers a versatile manufacturing technique capable of precise control over LM microstructures, yet challenges such as interfilament void formation in multilayer structures impact material performance. Here, a DIW strategy is introduced to control both LM microstructure and material architecture. Investigating three key process parameters–nozzle height, extrusion rate, and nondimensionalized nozzle velocity–it is found that nozzle height and velocity predominantly influence filament geometry. The nozzle height primarily dictates the aspect ratio of the filament and the formation of voids. A threshold print height based on filament geometry is identified; below the height, significant surface roughness occurs, and above the ink fractures, which facilitates the creation of porous structures with tunable stiffness and programmable LM microstructure. These porous architectures exhibit reduced density and enhanced thermal conductivity compared to cast samples. When used as a dielectric in a soft capacitive sensor, they display high sensitivity (gauge factor = 9.0), as permittivity increases with compressive strain. These results demonstrate the capability to simultaneously manipulate LM microstructure and geometric architecture in LM elastomer composites through precise control of print parameters, while maintaining geometric fidelity in the printed design.