Effect of Mechanical Properties of Substrates on Flexibility of Ag Nanowire Electrodes under a Large Number of Bending Cycles

Abstract

Ag nanowire electrodes have attracted considerable attention because of their potential applications in next-generation flexible electronics. However, there is a paucity of studies on the mechanical properties of Ag nanowire electrodes subjected to a large number of bending cycles. In this study, the effects of the substrate on the mechanical behavior of Ag nanowire electrodes were studied for a high bending frequency. The mechanical reliability of the Ag nanowire electrodes fabricated on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate was better than that for a polyimide (PI) substrate; the increase in the resistance of the PET-based Ag nanowire electrode was 1.07%, while that of the PI-based one was 1.23%. Nanoindentation tests showed that the elastic modulus of PI was larger than that of PET. This resulted in a lower bending strain on PET-based Ag nanowire electrodes compared to those on PI-based ones, because of the smaller distance from the neutral plane of the PET-based system. Our study showed that the mechanical properties of the substrate influenced the strain imposed on the thin layer on the substrates, which, in turn, determines the mechanical reliability of the thin-layer/substrate multilayer system.

Strain-induced degradation and recovery of flexible NbOx-based threshold switching device

“…The measured XPS spectra that shows the unaffected NbO x stoichiometry after the strain and annealing cycle is included in the supplementary information as Figure S1 . The stress fatigue induced by the repeated strain causes an increase in crack density, which eventually results into long-range cracks that obstruct the current flow 36 . Hence, the resistance of the top electrode was increased drastically from 255 Ω to 174 kΩ at the first instance of 10 4 bending cycles (Fig.…”

Recent Development of Polyaniline/graphene Composite Electrodes for Flexible Supercapacitor Devices

“…Structures grown on substrates, including textiles and plastics, need less effort to achieve mechanical stability because of the support from the flexible substrates. [68] For example, carbon cloth was employed as the current collector for p-phenylenediamine (pPDA)-functionalized graphene with covalently grafted polyaniline composite. [69] This composite was obtained by functionalizing graphite fluoride as the graphene precursor, which has substantial CÀ F units on its graphene basal plane, via ball milling and hydrothermal treatment.…”

“…The three‐dimensional porous electrode can be built on a flexible substrate or in free‐standing forms. Structures grown on substrates, including textiles and plastics, need less effort to achieve mechanical stability because of the support from the flexible substrates [68] . For example, carbon cloth was employed as the current collector for p ‐phenylenediamine ( p PDA)‐functionalized graphene with covalently grafted polyaniline composite [69] .…”