Stretchable thin-film metal electronics enabled by multilayered nanomembranes

Abstract

Metallic thin films are indispensable in flexible electronics, yet their brittleness under tensile strain has impeded their use in intrinsically stretchable devices. Here, we overcome this barrier with a multilayer platform of alternating nanomembranes of metal and porous elastomer assembled via exponential stacking. The porous elastomer layers anchor adjacent metal layers and facilitate vertical percolation. Under strain, they dissipate stress and laterally misalign cracks within successive metal layers, forming crack-bridging conductive pathways. This architecture achieves synergistic scaling of electrical and mechanical performance with increasing layer number, demonstrating bulk-like conductance at strains exceeding 700% across a wide range of metals. Using nanomembrane stacks of gold and platinum, we fabricated stretchable electrode arrays that enabled high-fidelity recordings and electrical stimulation of murine colonic electrophysiology in vivo.