Architecture-controlled carbon nanotube/bottlebrush elastomer–silver nanowire-based multilayer composites for skin-interfaced applications

Flexible conductive elastomers are promising biofunctional materials for skin-interfaced electronics, soft robotics, and mechanically compliant biomedical devices. However, approaches for tuning electrical transport and deformation-dependent response in conductive soft elastomer composites remain underdeveloped. We report architecture-controlled carbon nanotube/bottlebrush elastomer–silver nanowire (CNT/BBE–AgNW)-based multilayer composites with tunable thickness and interlayer configurations. CNT/BBE layers provide a soft conductive elastomer matrix, while AgNW interlayers introduce engineered conductive interfaces within the multilayer structure. Regular, thin, and double-sandwich architectures were fabricated to evaluate how through-plane transport distance and AgNW interface regulates electrical conductivity, mechanical coupling, and electromechanical behavior. Our results suggest that reducing thickness improved conformability, while using a double-sandwich AgNW architecture enhanced baseline conductivity and transport stability. Wearable bending demonstrations also showed that the regular architecture responded more favorably to localized finger bending, whereas the thin structure responded more strongly to distributed wrist bending because of enhanced conformal coupling. Frequency-dependent cyclic loading further showed that the composites can distinguish low-to-moderate-frequency mechanical inputs. These findings establish thickness and multilayer architecture engineering as promising design strategies to tune CNT/BBE-AgNW-based electromechanical materials for future skin-interfaced and soft biofunctional systems.