Ag Nanowire Reinforced Highly Stretchable Conductive Fibers for Wearable Electronics

Abstract

Stretchable conductive fibers have received significant attention due to their possibility of being utilized in wearable and foldable electronics. Here, highly stretchable conductive fiber composed of silver nanowires (AgNWs) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) embedded in a styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) elastomeric matrix is fabricated. An AgNW‐embedded SBS fiber is fabricated by a simple wet spinning method. Then, the AgNPs are formed on both the surface and inner region of the AgNW‐embedded fiber via repeated cycles of silver precursor absorption and reduction processes. The AgNW‐embedded conductive fiber exhibits superior initial electrical conductivity (σ0 = 2450 S cm−1) and elongation at break (900% strain) due to the high weight percentage of the conductive fillers and the use of a highly stretchable SBS elastomer matrix. During the stretching, the embedded AgNWs act as conducting bridges between AgNPs, resulting in the preservation of electrical conductivity under high strain (the rate of conductivity degradation, σ/σ0 = 4.4% at 100% strain). The AgNW‐embedded conductive fibers show the strain‐sensing behavior with a broad range of applied tensile strain. The AgNW reinforced highly stretchable conductive fibers can be embedded into a smart glove for detecting sign language by integrating five composite fibers in the glove, which can successfully perceive human motions.

Highly conductive and flexible fiber for textile electronics obtained by extremely low-temperature atomic layer deposition of Pt

“…The weight content of Pt in the conductive cotton fiber was measured as 8.91-17.87 wt%, which is far smaller than that in previously reported metal-based conductive fibers (60-85 wt%). 37,38 The very small weight content of Pt in the conductive cotton fiber, despite the excellent electrical performance, is mainly attributed to the ultrathin and conformal Pt layer deposited by ALD and enables the conductive cotton fiber fabricated by lowtemperature Pt ALD to have a strong advantage regarding costeffectiveness, as only an ultrasmall amount of noble metal is needed to fabricate the conductive fiber.…”

Emerging flexible and wearable physical sensing platforms for healthcare and biomedical applications

“…Unfortunately, elastomeric substrates normally possess low melting points and high hydrophobicity, complicating fabrication processes based on lithography or inkjet printing. Accordingly, modifications in the fabrication techniques [88][89][90] , material substitutions 14,91 , and alternative designs 92,93 have been developed, eventually resulting in flexible soft substrates with improved stretchability and electrical conductivity. Another interesting alternative to all these fabrication techniques is the age-old fabrication process, that is, weaving.…”

Surface coatings of silver nanowires lead to effective, high conductivity, high-strain, ultrathin sensors

“…. As an alternative material, silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been of great interest [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] due to the ability to form highly conductive percolative networks. [38][39][40][41] AgNW based sensing composite materials, formed exclusively by layer deposition, consist of a percolative network of the nanowires adhered to a flexible polymer substrate.…”

“…AgNW composites produced by layer deposition have displayed G values as large as 90 [27] and working strains as high as 220%. [37] However, no AgNW composite has reported both high working strain (>100%) simultaneously with high gauge factor (G > 20) (see SI, Table S1). Nor has a mixed composite (the most common form of carbon based sensing composite), using AgNWs as fillers, been investigated for comparative studies.…”