Yupeng Guo

The dissemination of sensors is key to realizing a sustainable, ‘intelligent’ world, where everyday objects and environments are equipped with sensing capabilities to advance the sustainability and quality of our lives—e.g. via smart homes, smart cities, smart healthcare, smart logistics, Industry 4.0, and precision agriculture. The realization of the full potential of these applications critically depends on the availability of easy-to-make, low-cost sensor technologies. Sensors based on printable electronic materials offer the ideal platform: they can be fabricated through simple methods (e.g. printing and coating) and are compatible with high-throughput roll-to-roll processing. Moreover, printable electronic materials often allow the fabrication of sensors on flexible/stretchable/biodegradable substrates, thereby enabling the deployment of sensors in unconventional settings. Fulfilling the promise of printable electronic materials for sensing will require materials and device innovations to enhance their ability to transduce external stimuli—light, ionizing radiation, pressure, strain, force, temperature, gas, vapours, humidity, and other chemical and biological analytes. This Roadmap brings together the viewpoints of experts in various printable sensing materials—and devices thereof—to provide insights into the status and outlook of the field. Alongside recent materials and device innovations, the roadmap discusses the key outstanding challenges pertaining to each printable sensing technology. Finally, the Roadmap points to promising directions to overcome these challenges and thus enable ubiquitous sensing for a sustainable, ‘intelligent’ world.

Cold metal transfer (CMT) technique is developed for lap joining of titanium (Ti) alloy to stainless steel (SS) with CuSi3 filler wire. The effect of welding speed on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti/SS lap joints is investigated. The results indicate that the wetting angle of the lap joints gradually increases and the weld width decreases with increasing the welding speed. It is found that many coarse phases in the fusion zone are rich in Ti, Fe and Si etc, inferring as Fe–Si–Ti ternary phase and/or Fe2Ti phase at low welding speed. Many fine spherical particles in the fusion zone are considered as iron-rich particles at high welding speed. The transition layer are exhibited at the Ti–Cu interface. With increasing the heat input, the intermetallic layer becomes thicker. A variety of brittle intermetallic compounds (IMCs) are identified in the lap joints. The shear strength of the joints increases with increasing the welding speed. Two fracture modes occur in the lap joints at low welding speed. Thicker reaction layer causes brittle fracture and poor joint strength. The Fe–Ti–Si and Fe2Ti phase within the fusion zone are detrimental to the joint strength. The fracture surface of the joints is dominated by smooth surface and tear pattern at high welding speed. The fracture mode of the joints is merely along the Ti–Cu interface.