High thermal conductivity in soft elastomers with elongated liquid metal inclusions

TLDR

Soft dielectric materials exhibit low thermal conductivity that worsens as stiffness decreases, limiting their use in wearable computing, soft robotics, and other applications requiring both high heat transfer and low stiffness. The study aims to create an electrically insulating composite that combines metal‑like thermal conductivity, soft tissue‑like compliance (<100 kPa), and extreme stretchability (>600 %). The composite achieves this by deformable liquid metal inclusions that form in‑situ thermally conductive pathways through a unique thermal‑mechanical coupling. Incorporating liquid metal microdroplets boosts thermal conductivity by ~25× (to 4.7 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹) unstressed and ~50× (to 9.8 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹) under strain, enabling passive heat exchange in stretchable electronics and soft robots, as shown by rapid LED lamp cooling and a swimming soft robot.

Abstract

Soft dielectric materials typically exhibit poor heat transfer properties due to the dynamics of phonon transport, which constrain thermal conductivity (k) to decrease monotonically with decreasing elastic modulus (E). This thermal-mechanical trade-off is limiting for wearable computing, soft robotics, and other emerging applications that require materials with both high thermal conductivity and low mechanical stiffness. Here, we overcome this constraint with an electrically insulating composite that exhibits an unprecedented combination of metal-like thermal conductivity, an elastic compliance similar to soft biological tissue (Young's modulus < 100 kPa), and the capability to undergo extreme deformations (>600% strain). By incorporating liquid metal (LM) microdroplets into a soft elastomer, we achieve a ∼25× increase in thermal conductivity (4.7 ± 0.2 W⋅m-1⋅K-1) over the base polymer (0.20 ± 0.01 W⋅m-1·K-1) under stress-free conditions and a ∼50× increase (9.8 ± 0.8 W⋅m-1·K-1) when strained. This exceptional combination of thermal and mechanical properties is enabled by a unique thermal-mechanical coupling that exploits the deformability of the LM inclusions to create thermally conductive pathways in situ. Moreover, these materials offer possibilities for passive heat exchange in stretchable electronics and bioinspired robotics, which we demonstrate through the rapid heat dissipation of an elastomer-mounted extreme high-power LED lamp and a swimming soft robot.