Biaxial Stretchability and Transparency of Ag Nanowire 2D Mass-Spring Networks Prepared by Floating Compression

Abstract

Networks of silver nanowires (Ag NWs) have been considered as promising materials for stretchable and transparent conductors. Despite various improvements of their optoelectronic and electromechanical properties over the past few years, Ag NW networks with a sufficient stretchability in multiple directions that is essential for the accommodation of the multidirectional strains of human movement have seldom been reported. For this paper, biaxially stretchable, transparent conductors were developed based on 2D mass-spring networks of wavy Ag NWs. Inspired by the traditional papermaking process, the 2D wavy networks were produced by floating Ag NW networks on the surface of water and subsequently applying biaxial compression to them. It was demonstrated that this floating-compression process can reduce the friction between the Ag NW-water interfaces, providing a uniform and isotropic in-plane waviness for the networks without buckling or cracking. The resulting Ag NW networks that were transferred onto elastomeric substrates successfully acted as conductors with an excellent transparency, conductivity, and electromechanical stability under a biaxial strain of 30%. The strain sensors that are based on the prepared conductors demonstrated a great potential for the enhanced performances of future wearable devices.