Mechanoadaptive nanowire viscoplastic composites with strain-enhanced conductivity for reprocessable bioelectronic interfaces
Bioelectronic interfaces must mechanically conform and adapt to biological tissues while maintaining stable electrical performance during motion and deformation. Existing soft conductors, however, often couple mechanical strain to electrical resistance, accumulate interfacial stress, and hinder reprocessing. Here, we report nanowire viscoplastic composites that combine silver nanowires with a dynamically crosslinked, short-chain polyborosiloxane matrix to produce emergent electromechanical behavior. The viscoplastic matrix permits deformation-induced nanowire reorganization, yielding high conductivity enhanced with strains. It also imparts fast stress relaxation, controllable yielding, and plastic conformability, enabling stress-free, mechanoadaptive contact with biological tissues. The material is self-healing, reconfigurable, and solvent-processable for recycling. It forms stable adhesion across porcine, rat, and human skin; accommodates hair regrowth; and exhibits excellent cytocompatibility and antibacterial function. As dry electrodes, these composites exhibit low impedance and resolve perilaryngeal muscle fatigue through high-resolution surface electromyography in humans. This work expands the materials design space for bioelectronic interfaces.
Authors
- Changhong Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9707-3518)
- Zixin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6852-6496)
- Yixun Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3322-4229)
- Pengyun Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1070-4055)
- Aram Bahmani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8172-8022)
- Ran Huo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5066-986X)
- Dongling Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8558-3150)
- Hideaki Okuyama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3164-0102)
- Lisa Martignetti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0228-0408)
- Guangyu Bao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5794-9020)
- Wei Feng Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8503-4562)
- Nicole Y. K. Li‐Jessen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2963-4763)
- Hongyu Hou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2151-2043)
- Xuan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6088-6451)
- Jianyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1128-6804)
- Xin Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0971-573X)
- Heng Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5985-9387)
- Dixiang Gong
- Shengyun Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4949-8106)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- McGill University Health Centre (CA)
- Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (CA)
- McGill University (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-10-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aef5042
- Primary Topic
- Nanomaterials and Printing Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada