Applied Nano Technology and Science (ANTS) Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Korea.
Nanoscale. 2012 Oct 21;4(20):6408-14. doi: 10.1039/c2nr31254a.
The future electronics will be soft, flexible and even stretchable to be more human friendly in the form of wearable computers. However, conventional electronic materials are usually brittle. Recently, carbon based materials are intensively investigated as a good candidate for flexible electronics but with limited mechanical and electrical performances. Metal is still the best material for electronics with great electrical properties but with poor transparency and mechanical performance. Here we present a simple approach to develop a synthesis method for very long metallic nanowires and apply them as new types of high performance flexible and transparent metal conductors as an alternative to carbon nanotubes, graphene and short nanowire based flexible transparent conductors and indium tin oxide based brittle transparent conductors. We found that very long metallic nanowire network conductors combined with a low temperature laser nano-welding process enabled superior transparent flexible conductors with high transmittance and high electrical conductivity. Further, we demonstrated highly flexible metal conductor LED circuits and transparent touch panels. The highly flexible and transparent metal conductors can be mounted on any non-planar surfaces and applied for various opto-electronics and ultimately for future wearable electronics.
未来的电子产品将变得柔软、灵活，甚至可拉伸，以可穿戴电脑的形式更具人性化。然而，传统的电子材料通常很脆。最近，碳基材料作为柔性电子产品的候选材料受到了广泛关注，但它们的机械和电气性能有限。金属仍然是具有出色电性能的最佳电子材料，但透光性和机械性能较差。在这里，我们提出了一种简单的方法来开发非常长的金属纳米线的合成方法，并将其用作新型高性能柔性透明金属导体，以替代碳纳米管、石墨烯和基于短纳米线的柔性透明导体以及基于铟锡氧化物的脆性透明导体。我们发现，非常长的金属纳米线网络导体与低温激光纳米焊接工艺相结合，可实现具有高透光率和高导电性的卓越透明柔性导体。此外，我们展示了高度灵活的金属导体 LED 电路和透明触摸面板。这些高度灵活和透明的金属导体可以安装在任何非平面表面上，并应用于各种光电领域，并最终应用于未来的可穿戴电子产品。
