Beyond Conventional Patterns: New Electrochemical Lithography with High Precision for Patterned Film Materials and Wearable Sensors.

We report a simple, low-cost, and brand-new electrochemical lithography technique for replicating the template pattern with high resolution at ∼2 μm. The developed method is that the electroactive material is first deposited on the patterned conductive template by the electrochemical technique and then peeled by an adhesive tape/material. The resulting film with the precise pattern shows excellent mechanical and electronic properties and promises high prospect in designing flexible electronics. This interesting approach can be performed at ambient conditions and easily generalized to pattern various electroactive materials covering metal, alloy, nonmetal, salt, oxide, and composite on different types of substrates in several seconds to a few minutes, making the mass production of flexible/rigid/stretchable patterned thin films quite possible.