Electronic skins with unique features have tempted tremendous attention from researchers due to their encouraging applications in flexible electronics. A recent study illustrated novel morphologically conductive hydrogel microfibers with MXene encapsulation utilizing a multi-injection co-flow glass capillary microfluidic chip. 

The coaxial flows in microchannels jointly with rapid gelation between alginate and calcium ions secure the construction of hollow straight and helical microfibers, guaranteeing the in situ encapsulation of MXene. These consequential hollow straight and helical MXene hydrogel microfibers showed high controllable morphologies and package characteristics. This effortless manipulation of the microfluidics, makes the structure compositions and the sizes of MXene hydrogel microfibers be efficiently molded by differing different flow rates. These morphologically conductive MXene hydrogel microfibers also demonstrated remarkable abilities of sensitive reactions to motion and photothermal provocations, based on their related resistance transformations. 

Thus, the morphologically conductive MXene hydrogel microfibers possessing excellent features can be applied in important smart flexible electronics, particularly electronic skins.

Source: Guo J, Yu Y, Zhang D, et al. Morphological hydrogel microfibers with MXene encapsulation for electronic skin. Research (Wash D C). 2021;2021:7065907.