Life and electronics represent the 2 most successful information systems on earth, yet they are built upon fundamentally different material foundations. Biological systems emerge, evolve, and function in liquids. Water not only serves as the medium for life but also actively participates in ion transport, molecular communication, metabolic regulation, and self-organization [1]. In contrast, modern electronics has developed almost entirely upon solid-state materials. From silicon semiconductors to integrated circuits, electronic functionality has traditionally relied on stable crystal structures, fixed interfaces, and deterministic charge transport. These 2 strategies have independently driven extraordinary advances in biology and information technology.

As electronics increasingly moves beyond traditional computing toward wearable devices, bioelectronics, soft robotics, and human–machine interfaces, this solid-state paradigm begins to encounter its limitations [2]. Flexible electronics has substantially improved the mechanical compatibility between electronic devices and soft biological tissues through stretchable conductors, deformable substrates, and structural engineering [2,3]. However, despite their mechanical flexibility, most existing flexible electronic systems remain fundamentally static in function. Their conductive pathways, interfaces, and architectures are largely predetermined during fabrication and are expected to remain unchanged throughout operation. Consequently, many defining characteristics of living systems, such as autonomous adaptation, dynamic reconfiguration, transformable tuning, and self-recovery, remain difficult to achieve via conventional material concepts alone. These observations suggest that the central challenge may not simply be making solid materials softer, but rather exploiting the unique capabilities enabled by liquids. Unlike solids, liquids continuously reorganize their interfaces, redistribute matter and charge, and evolve toward energetically favorable configurations. Such dynamic behaviors provide an alternative route for generating functionality that cannot be readily realized in traditional static materials.

Here, we introduce LiqMat (liquidity-enabled matters) as a materials-oriented conceptual framework in which liquidity is treated as a functional design principle for generating adaptive electronic behavior (Fig. 1). Unlike existing reviews that survey hydrogels, ionogels, or liquid metals separately, this perspective focuses on the common functional logic that cuts across these platforms, namely, liquidity-enabled adaptation. LiqMat complements established soft-matter concepts by focusing specifically on how liquid-enabled dynamics can be exploited as a source of electronic functionality. By harnessing these dynamics, LiqMat provides a distinct pathway for functional emergence, establishing a conceptual foundation for the next generation of adaptive electronic materials.

Classical electronic materials derive functionality from fixed chemical compositions and static structures. Once fabricated, stable electrical behavior is anticipatable, with performance optimization focused on structural precision and the suppression of operational instabilities. This philosophy underpins the success of solid-state electronics. LiqMat represents a fundamentally different materials paradigm. Rather than encoding functionality solely within static structures, LiqMat derives functionality from the dynamic behaviors enabled by liquidity. Accordingly, we define LiqMat as a materials framework in which liquidity-enabled dynamics give rise to adaptive functionality through intrinsic material reorganization that helps maintain, restore, or improve function as operating conditions change. Within this framework, liquidity is regarded not merely as a physical state but as a functional design principle capable of generating adaptive material behaviors.

The core characteristics of LiqMat arise from the intrinsic dynamics of liquid or liquid-like systems. Physical stimuli such as mechanical deformation, electric fields, thermal gradients, and chemical environments, coupled with the intrinsic mobility of liquids, drive the redistribution of matter and charge that gives rise to dynamic interfaces, adaptive transport, and structural evolution in LiqMat systems. Unlike rigid solid interfaces, liquid-enabled interfaces continuously reconstruct through wetting, molecular rearrangement, adsorption, and interfacial transport, processes governed by local interfacial energy regulation rather than global energy minimization. Consequently, the interface itself becomes an active functional component that dynamically regulates electrical coupling, mechanical contact, and interactions with surrounding environments. At the same time, transport within LiqMat is inherently adaptive rather than fixed. Electrons, ions, molecules, and even the liquid phase itself can continuously redistribute under mechanical, electrical, thermal, or chemical stimuli, allowing transport pathways to reorganize during operation in response to changing environmental conditions. The dynamic nature of LiqMat further extends to its structural organization. Whereas conventional electronic materials generally preserve fixed structural configurations after fabrication, LiqMat systems continuously reorganize through fluid flow, interfacial interactions, phase transitions, or network reconstruction, reflecting energy-landscape-driven evolution rather than simple relaxation toward equilibrium. Material structure therefore becomes an evolving variable instead of a predetermined framework, enabling reconfigurable conductive networks and adaptive material functions.

Together, dynamic interfaces, adaptive transport, and structural evolution constitute the 3 core behavioral characteristics of LiqMat (Fig. 1). These characteristics should be understood collectively rather than as independent or exclusive classification criteria, as each may also arise in nonliquid systems, but rarely with the same degree of continuous, fluidic reconfigurability. Within LiqMat, their importance lies in their common origin in liquidity-enabled mobility and continuous material reorganization, which are functionally coupled to electronic, ionic, or mass transport and support adaptive functionality. While established concepts such as soft, reconfigurable, stimuli-responsive, adaptive, active, and dynamic materials each emphasize distinct attributes, including mechanical compliance, structural reorganization, environmental responsiveness, or energy-driven activity, LiqMat focuses on liquidity as a functional design principle that connects these dynamic processes across diverse material platforms. In this way, functionality is not solely encoded in stable structures but can emerge and evolve through liquidity-enabled dynamics.

The concept of LiqMat is not restricted to a specific chemical composition or a single type of liquid phase. Instead, it provides a broader conceptual framework encompassing material systems in which functionality emerges from liquidity-enabled dynamics. Different material platforms achieve such dynamic behaviors through distinct mechanisms. Here, we highlight several representative LiqMat platforms that exemplify how liquidity can serve as a fundamental source of functionality (Fig. 1).

As electronic systems progressively move into complex environments such as biological tissues, soft robots, and human–machine interfaces, future devices must operate under conditions that are far more dynamic and unpredictable than those encountered in traditional electronics. In such scenarios, mechanical flexibility alone is insufficient to ensure reliable functionality. Instead, future electronics must inherently acquire the ability to dynamically regulate function, reorganize internal states, and maintain performance under continuously changing conditions. These demands point toward a broader transition from flexible electronics to adaptive electronics.

From the perspective of LiqMat, this transition can be understood through 4 fundamental shifts. First, electronics must evolve from static to dynamic, where functional states are no longer permanently defined during fabrication but can continuously evolve during operation. Second, systems must transition from fixed to reconfigurable, enabling conductive pathways, interfaces, and transport networks to reorganize in response to internal or external perturbations. Third, device behavior must advance from passive to adaptive, such that materials actively participate in functional regulation rather than merely responding to external control signals. Finally, future electronic systems may progress from rigid to living-like, progressively exhibiting properties such as self-regulation, self-recovery, and long-term environmental adaptation that are characteristic of biological systems.

However, the liquidity that enables reconfiguration and adaptation also introduces trade-offs in stability, controllability, and processability. Thus, LiqMat should aim not to maximize liquidity, but to balance these attributes according to the target function. Key challenges include the quantitative description and prediction of adaptive transport in evolving percolation networks, the programming of dynamic interfaces, and the interplay among thermodynamics, kinetics, dissipation, and external driving forces. Equally important are long-term encapsulation of liquid phases, integration with conventional manufacturing, and energy efficiency in actively driven systems. A further conceptual challenge is to determine when a dynamic response becomes genuine functional adaptation and how adaptation can be quantitatively distinguished from simple responsiveness or externally programmed reconfiguration. Addressing these questions will be essential for translating LiqMat into scalable technologies and for developing predictive design principles for adaptive electronics. Taken together, these challenges highlight the broader opportunity offered by LiqMat. By harnessing liquidity-enabled reorganization, LiqMat provides a materials-oriented route toward electronics in which functionality can evolve rather than remain entirely predefined.

Electronics in the past century has been fundamentally constructed upon solid-state materials, where functionality is encoded through fixed atomic arrangements and predefined device architectures. This paradigm has enabled remarkable technological progress, but it also imposes intrinsic limitations on adaptability and long-term functional evolution. The LiqMat concept suggests an alternative design principle in which liquidity is not treated as a constraint to be eliminated, but as an active resource for generating functionality. By enabling dynamic interfaces, evolving transport pathways, and continuously reconfiguring structures, liquidity introduces a distinct mechanism for functional emergence that complements traditional solid-state approaches. Rather than replacing existing electronic technologies, LiqMat expands the conceptual and materials space for electronics that are not merely flexible, but dynamically reconfigurable.

More broadly, it provides a bridge between biological and electronic systems, where functionality is not solely defined by structure, but continuously shaped by dynamics. Looking ahead, the integration of ionic and electronic pathways within a single liquid-enabled platform may enable new forms of bioinspired computation and sensing that are difficult to achieve with rigid architectures. The ability to program interfacial dynamics through external fields could further lead to materials whose functions can be tuned in real time, while hybrid systems combining liquid metals, hydrogels, ionogels, and electrofluids may eventually bridge the gap between high-performance electronics and biological compatibility. Realizing these possibilities will require continued progress in stability, encapsulation, and scalable manufacturing, but these challenges define important directions for establishing LiqMat as a predictive framework for adaptive electronics.