Liquid 3D

Financed by European Research Council (ERC) Consolidated Grant Liquid3D (Grant No. 101045072) under Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Program.

Project Description

Liquid3D proposes bioinspired electronics and machines that are soft, resilient, self-healing, shape-morphing, and fully recyclable. Functional sensing/acting/processing/energy cells will be 3D printed using a series of game changer Liquid Metal based composites. As a result, we will print futuristic soft electronics that sense and interact with humans or the environment. This provides an excellent design freedom to scientists for manufacturing complex “living” electronics, while guaranteeing that any possible product coming from these inventions will be Resilient, Repairable, and Recyclable. I expect that over 80% of microchips, and metals in the printed circuits, can be recovered. Liquid3D redefines the electronics, by rethinking the materials, fabrications, and design architectures. These objectives are feasible, thanks to the recent breakthroughs that I made to the field: First; discovery of the biphasic (liquid-solid) composite based on Gallium-Indium Liquid Metal (LM), that allowed the first ever method for room temperature printing of stretchable circuits; and second, a method for inclusion of microelectronics into ultra-stretchable circuits through self-soldering, self-healing, and self-encapsulating of LM-Polymer composites. With Liquid3D I will develop fundamental understanding, and mathematical modelling of biphasic systems, and develops novel room temperature printable composites with sensing/acting/energy storage properties, and methods for recycling them. I will investigate novel forms of implementing truly 3D electronics, with distributed functional cells. Liquid3D intends to fundamentally rethink, the concept of electronics, as we know today. From rigid and brittle to soft, resilient and repairable; From polluting to recyclable; from battery dependent to self-powered; from 2D to truly 3D; It proposes a radically new way of making “greener” electronics. With Liquid3D I aim to establish the world leading centre on recyclable, and green electronics.

Publications

Graphene-Assisted Chemical Stabilization of Liquid Metal Nano Droplets for Liquid Metal Based Energy Storage (2024) PDF

Afsaneh L. Sanati, Timur Nikitin, Rui Fausto, Carmel Majidi, Mahmoud Tavakoli

Adv. Mater. Technol. 2024, 9, 2301428

DOI:10.1002/admt.202301428

3D Printed Gallium Battery with Outstanding Energy Storage: Toward Fully Printed Battery-on-the-Board Soft Electronics (2024) PDF

Elahe Parvini, Abdollah Hajalilou, João Pedro Gonçalves Vilarinho, Pedro Alhais Lopes, Miguel Maranha, Mahmoud Tavakoli

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol 16, Issue 25

DOI:10.1021/acsami.4c02706

Gallium–Carbon: A Universal Composite for Sustainable 3D Printing of Integrated Sensor–Heater–Battery Systems in Wearable and Recyclable Electronics(2024) PDF

Marta Calisto Freitas, Afsaneh L. Sanati, Pedro Alhais Lopes, André F. Silva, Mahmoud Tavakoli

Small 2024, 20, 2304716

DOI:10.1002/smll.202304716

Recyclable liquid metal – Graphene supercapacitor (2023) PDF

Afsaneh L. Sanati, Pedro Alhais Lopes, Alexandre Chambel, André F. Silva, Diogo M. Oliveira, Carmel Majidi, Anibal T. de Almeida, Mahmoud Tavakoli

Chemical Engineering Journal Vol. 479, 2024,147894

DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.147894

From Conventional Non-Conductive Foams to Soft Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors: A Low-Cost Approach to Large-Area Pressure-Mapping (2023) PDF

Manuel. R. Carneiro, Luis Rosa, Mahmoud Tavakoli

2023 IEEE SENSORS, Vienna, Austria

DOI: 10.1109/SENSORS56945.2023.10325315

Gallium-Based Liquid–Solid Biphasic Conductors for Soft Electronics (2023) PDF

Manuel. R. Carneiro, Anibal T. de Almeida,Mahmoud Tavakoli, Carmel Majidi

Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023, 33, 2306453

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202306453

Recyclable Thin-Film Soft Electronics for Smart Packaging and E-Skins (2023) PDF

Manuel. R. Carneiro, Carmel Majidi, Mahmoud Tavakoli

Adv. Sci. 2023, 10, 2301673

DOI: 10.1002/advs.202301673

Digitally Printable Magnetic Liquid Metal Composite for Recyclable Soft-Matter Electronics (2023) PDF

Abdollah Hajalilou, Elahe Parvini,  João P. M. Pereira, Pedro A. Lopes, André F. Silva, Anibal De Almeida, Mahmoud Tavakoli

 Adv. Mater. Technol. 2023, 8, 2201621

DOI: 10.1002/admt.202201621

Toward Fully Printed Soft Actuators: UV-Assisted Printing of Liquid Crystal Elastomers and Biphasic Liquid Metal Conductors (2023) PDF

João S. Veiga, Manuel R. Carneiro,  Rafael Molter, Michael Vinciguerra, Lining Yao, Carmel Majidi, Mahmoud Tavakoli

Adv. Mater. Technol. 2023, 8, 2300144

DOI: 10.1002/admt.202300144

3R Batteries: Resilient, Repairable, and Recyclable Based on Liquid Gallium Electrode (2023) PDF

Elahe Parvini, Abdollah Hajalilou, Pedro A.Lopes, André F. Silva, Miguel S. M. Tiago, Pedro M. P. Fernandes, Anibal T. de Almeida, Mahmoud Tavakoli

Adv. Mater. Technol. 2023, 2301189

DOI: 10.1002/admt.202301189