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Printable electronics is highly desirable for high throughput device manufacture. Here, Matsuhisa et al. report an electric ink, made of a self-assembled network of sliver flakes on the surface of a fluorine rubber matrix, which exhibits high conductivity and mechanical durability to achieve this goal.

By integrating wireless stretchable on-skin sensor tags and flexible readout circuits attached to textiles using an unconventional radiofrequency identification design, a body area sensor network can be created that can continuously analyse a person’s pulse, breathing and body movement.

A stretchable anode, cathode, semiconductor and current collector have been developed to create stretchable diodes that can operate at megahertz frequencies for use in wirelessly operated, skin-like wearable electronics.

A wireless miniaturized sensor can report a ‘spoiler alert’ via a mobile phone by detecting volatile biogenic amines that are produced by spoiled protein-rich foods, providing a feasible solution to identify and prevent food spoilage and promote food safety.

The realization of intrinsically stretchable organic photovoltaics with excellent mechanical robustness remains challenging. Here, the authors redistribute the strain in the active layer to PEDOT:PSS electrodes with simultaneously enhanced stretchability and interfacial adhesion in the device.

High-density, intrinsically stretchable transistors with high driving ability and integrated circuits with high operation speed and large-scale integration were enabled by a combination of innovations in materials, fabrication process design, device engineering and circuit design.

Stretchable polymer semiconductors with high mechanical and electrical properties are challenging to develop. Wu et al. show that reversible molecular ordering under strain important for performance optimization and relative stretchability can be used to compare the relative strain tolerance of materials.

Designing bioinspired perceptual system remains a challenge. Here, the authors report a bimodal artificial sensory neuron, integrating a resistive pressure sensor, a perovskite-based photodetector, a hydrogel-based ionic cable, and a synaptic transistor, to implement the visual-haptic fusion for motion control and patterns recognition.

An all-elastomer strain engineering approach, which uses patterned elastomer layers with tunable stiffnesses, can be used to create intrinsically stretchable transistor arrays with a device density of 340 transistors cm^–2 and strain insensitivity of less than 5% performance variation when stretched to 100% strain.

Designing efficient systems capable emulating the muscular excitation-contraction signatures, remains a challenge. Here, the authors propose cytoadhesion-inspired hybrids as locally-coupled electromechanical interfaces capable retrieving the myoelectric and mechanical signals.

A material design strategy and fabrication process is described to produce all-polymer light-emitting diodes with high brightness, current efficiency and good mechanical stability, with applications in skin electronics and human–machine interfaces.

Designing intrinsically stretchable semiconducting polymers with suitable charge transport and mechanical properties required for stretchable electronic devices remains a challenge. Here, the authors report terpolymer-based semiconductors with intrinsically high stretchability and mobility.

Typically, ion conducting polymers exhibit a trade-off between mechanical robustness and ionic conducting performance. Here, the authors utilize supramolecular chemistry obtaining extremely tough electrolytes with high ionic conductivity and enabling stretchable lithium-ion batteries.

Self-reconstruction of conducting nanostructures assisted by a dynamically crosslinked polymer network enables the fabrication of autonomous self-healable and stretchable multi-component electronic skin.

High-resolution imaging technologies call for photodetectors with high-gain and linear response over a large dynamic range. Chow et al. show a dual-gate structure that combines the operation of photodiodes and phototransistors to enable both amplified and linear response without external circuitry.

By using a conformable electrical interface as an electrical modulating unit and a Venus flytrap as an actuating unit, a biohybrid actuator can be created that is power efficient and responsive, and it can be wirelessly controlled via a smartphone.

Breathable and stretchable fibrous mesh electrical interconnects directly attached to human skin can serve as components of on-skin sensors.

Printing and heating of a fluorinated elastomer mixed with silver flakes, a fluorine surfactant and methylisobutylketone leads to the formation of in situ silver nanoparticles, which boost the conductivity of this highly stretchable composite material.

Engineering of the interfacial properties between a semiconducting thin film and a stretchable substrate using tough interfacial bonding enables a notable delay in microcrack formation.