Fig. 4: Applications of FS-GaIn.
a Electromechanical behavior of the pristine and repaired FS-GaIn circuit. (i) The pristine FS-GaIn, (ii) The deliberately damaged FS-GaIn. (iii) The repaired circuit by the FS-GaIn repair patch. b Relative change in resistance as a function of the uniaxial tensile strain (0.5 mm s−1) of the FS-GaIn trace with a zero-ohm resistor. Inset: the digital image of the FS-GaIn with a zero-ohm resistor. c Demonstration of the in situ circuit modification with FS-GaIn. (i) A circuit with LED on. (ii) In situ circuit addition by placing a new FS-GaIn circuit with another LED. Inset: the SEM image of the original circuit (red pseudo-color) and the newly added circuit (blue pseudo-color) (iii) A disconnected circuit with LEDs off. Inset: the digital image of the damaged area (red pseudo-color). (iv) Repaired circuit with the FS-GaIn repair patch indicated by two bright LEDs. Inset: the digital image of the original circuit (red pseudo-color) and the newly added repair patch (blue pseudo-color). d FS-GaIn’s utility in various constrained situations: (a) detouring an obstacle, (b) passing between narrow obstacles, (c) folding at a right angle (90°), and (d) installing on an extremely rough surface of a miniaturized mountain. Scale bars: 3 mm (c, d), 300 μm (c left inset), 2 mm (c right inset).
