Figure 3. Patterned director orientation isolates strain–sensitive components for stretchable electronics.

A transmission optical micrograph of the silver coated LCE before (a) after deformation (b) showing clear failure of the silver coating in the soft elastic regime. Scale bar, 1 mm. Resistance for a film of silver as a function of global strain is largely unchanged in domains where the director lies along the loading axis. Resistance increases by 30-fold in domains where the director lies perpendicular to the loading axis (c). Error bars indicate s.d. of n=3 samples. Infrared images of a uniform (top) and patterned (bottom) LCE film coated with silver nanowires, strained to 10% global strain and with an applied voltage along the long axis of the film (d). Patterned director orientation leads to patterned resistance in the film. Scale bar, 5 mm. Crossed arrows indicate the orientation of the polarizer and analyser for photographs.