Recent Progress in Strain-Engineered Stretchable Constructs

Abstract

A variety of natural biological tissues (e.g., skin, ligaments, and blood vessels) exhibit a J-shaped stress–strain behavior, combining soft, compliant mechanics and large levels of stretchability together with a natural ‘strain-limiting’ mechanism to prevent damage from excessive strain. This review provides an extensive overview of recent advancements in the field of strain-engineered stretchable constructs, with a particular emphasis on strain-limiting constructs mimicking the J-shaped stress–strain behavior. The use of synthetic materials that have a similar stress–strain behavior to the target could be helpful for many potential applications, such as tissue engineering (to simulate the J-shaped nonlinear mechanical properties of biological tissues) and biomedical devices (to enable natural, comfortable integration of stretchable electronics with biological tissues/organs). In recent years, several studies have been conducted on these constructs because of their exceptional ability to withstand large deformations with electrical stability in stretchable and wearable electronics. One of the purposes of this review is to summarize the recent fabrication approaches used for developing strain-engineered stretchable constructs mimicking the J-shaped stress–strain/strain-limiting behavior of biological tissues. The review also highlights recent applications of strain-limiting constructs, which have shown their potential in incorporating into a broad range of innovative fields, such as soft robotics, biomedical devices, wearable and stretchable electronics, and human–machine interfaces. Lastly, we concluded the review by pointing out some limitations and future prospective of the strain-engineered stretchable constructs.