Assembly of Foldable 3D Microstructures Using Graphene Hinges

Seungyun Lim; Haiwen Luan; Shiwei Zhao; Yongjun Lee; Yihui Zhang; Yonggang Huang; John A Rogers; Jong-Hyun Ahn

doi:10.1002/adma.202001303

Assembly of Foldable 3D Microstructures Using Graphene Hinges

Adv Mater. 2020 Jul;32(28):e2001303. doi: 10.1002/adma.202001303. Epub 2020 May 27.

Authors

Seungyun Lim¹, Haiwen Luan^{2

3}, Shiwei Zhao^{2

4}, Yongjun Lee¹, Yihui Zhang⁵, Yonggang Huang^{2

3}, John A Rogers^{3

6}, Jong-Hyun Ahn¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, Republic of Korea.
² Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
³ Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
⁴ School of Aeronautic Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, P. R. China.
⁵ Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Center for Flexible Electronics Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China.
⁶ Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Neurological Surgery, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.

PMID: 32462694
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202001303

Abstract

Origami/kirigami-inspired 3D assembly approaches have recently attracted attention for a variety of applications, such as advanced optoelectronic devices and biomedical sensors. The results reported here describe an approach to construct classes of multiple foldable 3D microstructures that involve deformations that typical conductive materials, such as conventional metal films, cannot tolerate. Atomically thin graphene sheets serve as folding hinges during a process of 2D to 3D conversion via a deterministic buckling process. The exceptional mechanical properties of graphene enable the controlled, geometric transformation of a 2D precursor bonded at selective sites on a prestretched elastomer into folded 3D microstructures, in a reversible manner without adverse effects on the electrical properties. Experimental and computational investigations of the folding mechanisms for such types of 3D objects reveal the underlying physics and the dependence of the process on the thickness of the graphene/supporting films that define the hinges.

Keywords: 3D assembly; compressive buckling; foldable structures; graphene; origami.

Abstract

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