Structure–Electrical Property Relationships of Spike-Structured Conductive Silicone Interfaces for Wearable Trigeminal Microcurrent Stimulation in Electroceutical Devices

Conductive silicone interfaces are promising polymeric materials for wearable bioelectronic systems because they combine electrical continuity with elastomeric compliance, environmental durability, and moldability. In low-voltage wearable microcurrent interfaces, however, functional performance is governed not only by intrinsic material conductivity, but also by conductive network continuity, molded geometry, interfacial contact, and transient electrical response. In this study, we developed a spike-structured conductive silicone interface using a commercially available electrically conductive two-component silicone rubber and investigated its structure–electrical property relationships as a volume-resistive polymer interface. The interface consisted of a conductive silicone body with protrusions 7 mm in height and 3.6 mm in diameter, supported by a 1 mm base layer and electrically integrated through an Ag-paste-connected upper conduction region. Using a representative electrode-level resistance of 47.08 Ω, the geometry-derived apparent interfacial resistive response was estimated as 18.0 Ω·cm for the three-spike configuration and 24.0 Ω·cm for the four-spike configuration. The corresponding effective conductive areas were 0.305 cm2 and 0.407 cm2, respectively, giving analytical current-density amplification factors of 9.82 and 7.37 relative to a planar 3 cm2 reference interface. Positional resistance mapping yielded an overall mean resistance of 47.80 ± 4.57 Ω, indicating acceptable electrical reproducibility across the structured conductive silicone interface. In addition, oscilloscope-based transient response analysis under a 5 V, 1 kHz square-wave input showed that the conductive silicone interface maintained the overall pulse waveform while showing a modest reduction in overshoot from 3.4 ± 0.1% to 2.7 ± 0.1%, with FFT traces used as qualitative waveform-monitoring displays. Formulation-dependent comparison further showed that increasing the silicone-rich fraction increased the measured resistance from 105 Ω to 145 Ω, whereas increasing conductive carbon loading reduced resistance but aggravated surface transfer. These results show that the conductive silicone interface functions not simply as a soft conductor, but as a volume-resistive, geometry-defined current-transfer medium whose behavior is governed by the coupled effects of conductive network formation, spike architecture, electrode-level resistance, and transient pulse response. This study provides a practical materials/interface design framework for spike-structured conductive silicone electrodes in wearable bioelectronic and electroceutical devices.

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Publication Details

Journal
Polymers
Published
2026-06-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/polym18121473
Primary Topic
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Structure–Electrical Property Relationships of Spike-Structured Conductive Silicone Interfaces for Wearable Trigeminal Microcurrent Stimulation in Electroceutical Devices

Young‐Suk Jung, Ji‐Hong Bae, Eunsoo Kim, Eun-Ji Kim et al.
Polymers
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
article

Structure–Electrical Property Relationships of Spike-Structured Conductive Silicone Interfaces for Wearable Trigeminal Microcurrent Stimulation in Electroceutical Devices

Young‐Suk Jung, Ji‐Hong Bae, Eunsoo Kim, Eun-Ji Kim, Tae-Hun Kim, Jiwon Cheon
article en

Abstract

Conductive silicone interfaces are promising polymeric materials for wearable bioelectronic systems because they combine electrical continuity with elastomeric compliance, environmental durability, and moldability. In low-voltage wearable microcurrent interfaces, however, functional performance is governed not only by intrinsic material conductivity, but also by conductive network continuity, molded geometry, interfacial contact, and transient electrical response. In this study, we developed a spike-structured conductive silicone interface using a commercially available electrically conductive two-component silicone rubber and investigated its structure–electrical property relationships as a volume-resistive polymer interface. The interface consisted of a conductive silicone body with protrusions 7 mm in height and 3.6 mm in diameter, supported by a 1 mm base layer and electrically integrated through an Ag-paste-connected upper conduction region. Using a representative electrode-level resistance of 47.08 Ω, the geometry-derived apparent interfacial resistive response was estimated as 18.0 Ω·cm for the three-spike configuration and 24.0 Ω·cm for the four-spike configuration. The corresponding effective conductive areas were 0.305 cm2 and 0.407 cm2, respectively, giving analytical current-density amplification factors of 9.82 and 7.37 relative to a planar 3 cm2 reference interface. Positional resistance mapping yielded an overall mean resistance of 47.80 ± 4.57 Ω, indicating acceptable electrical reproducibility across the structured conductive silicone interface. In addition, oscilloscope-based transient response analysis under a 5 V, 1 kHz square-wave input showed that the conductive silicone interface maintained the overall pulse waveform while showing a modest reduction in overshoot from 3.4 ± 0.1% to 2.7 ± 0.1%, with FFT traces used as qualitative waveform-monitoring displays. Formulation-dependent comparison further showed that increasing the silicone-rich fraction increased the measured resistance from 105 Ω to 145 Ω, whereas increasing conductive carbon loading reduced resistance but aggravated surface transfer. These results show that the conductive silicone interface functions not simply as a soft conductor, but as a volume-resistive, geometry-defined current-transfer medium whose behavior is governed by the coupled effects of conductive network formation, spike architecture, electrode-level resistance, and transient pulse response. This study provides a practical materials/interface design framework for spike-structured conductive silicone electrodes in wearable bioelectronic and electroceutical devices.

PolymersVol. 18(12)
Busan Institute of Science and Technology (KR), Pusan National University (KR)
National Research Foundation of Korea
Openalex Percentile: Top 10%
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
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