THE CHALLENGE
The electronics industry faces a significant challenge in developing materials that balance high electrical performance, mechanical durability, and environmental sustainability. Most current solutions rely on thermosetting plastics that are extremely difficult to recycle, contributing to a growing e-waste problem. Efforts to enhance conductivity by adding solid fillers like graphene or carbon nanotubes often require high loading levels, which make the materials stiff and brittle, limiting their use in flexible or reprocess able devices. While dynamic covalent networks such as vitrimers offer a promising path forward with their ability to be reshaped and recycled, integrating conductive elements without sacrificing strength or processability remains a major hurdle. Liquid metal composites present a potential breakthrough due to their excellent conductivity and regenerative properties, but current formulations tend to use soft, rubbery matrices that lack the structural integrity needed for rigid electronics. This leaves a clear market gap for a material solution that combines electrical functionality with reprocess ability and plastic-like strength, enabling more sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing for next-generation electronics.
OUR SOLUTION
We introduce a next-generation composite material that merges high electrical performance with mechanical durability and recyclability, addressing critical pain points in the electronics and materials industries. By combining a dynamic covalent epoxy-amine vitrimer with a small amount of eutectic gallium-indium liquid metal, this innovation forms a unique layered structure during curing, achieving high conductivity with just 5 percent metal content. Unlike traditional composites that are either too brittle, too soft, or nonrecyclable, this material offers the stiffness of conventional plastics, fast shape recovery, and stretchable conductive pathways that can be activated through simple mechanical processing. It cures without added catalysts at moderate temperatures and can be patterned using standard printing techniques, making it ideal for scalable manufacturing. At end of life, both the polymer and metal can be recovered through a straightforward chemical process, enabling a true circular materials solution that reduces waste and lowers total lifecycle costs for electronic device makers.
Figure: Reconfigurable material maintains DC power and data transmission to a counter display, even after severe damage.
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