Highly Stretchable, Transparent Ionic Touch Panel

The touch panel was developed decades ago and has become a popular input device in daily life. Because human-computer interaction is becoming more important, the next generation of touch panels require stretchability and bio-compatibility to allow integration with the human body. However, because most touch panels were developed based on stiff, brittle electrodes, electronic touch panels face difficulties to achieve such requirements. In this paper, for the first time, we demonstrate an ionic touch panel based on polyacrylamide hydrogel containing LiCl ions. The panel is soft and stretchable and thus, can sustain a large deformation. The panel can freely transmit light information through it because the hydrogel is transparent, with 99 % transmittance for visible light. A 1-dimensional touch strip was investigated to reveal the basic mechanism of sensing, and a 2-dimensional touch panel was developed to demonstrate its functionalities. The ionic touch panel was operated under high deformation with more than 1000% areal strain without sacrificing its functionalities. Furthermore, an epidermal touch panel on the skin was developed to demonstrate the mechanical and optical invisibility of the ionic touch panel through writing words, playing the piano and playing games.