Ultra-adaptable and Responsive Photonic Skin based on a Shape memory, Multi-phase Cellulose Derivative

Abstract

Photonic skins enable a direct and intuitive visualization of various physical and mechanical stimuli with eye‐readable colorations by intimately laminating to target substrates. However, developments of the skins are lagging behind compared to that of electronic skins. Herein, an ultra-adaptable, large‐area, multi-pixel photonic skin based on a naturally abundant and durable biopolymer of a shape‐memory, responsive multi-phase cellulose derivative, is presented. The wearable, large-scale and multi-pixel photonic skin mainly consists of a photonic sensor made of meso-phase cholesteric hydroxypropyl cellulose and an ultra‐adaptable adhesive layer made of amorphous hydroxypropyl cellulose. It is demonstrated that multi-layered flexible architectures and the multiphase cellulose derivative-based integrated photonic skins show not only seamlessly bonding to a wide range of biological and engineered surfaces, with a maximum of ≈180 times higher adhesion strengths compared to those of the polydimethylsiloxane adhesive, but also direct converting by spatiotemporal stimuli into visible color alterations in the large‐area, multipixel array. These colorations can be simply turned into 3D strain mapping data for digital camera imaging.