TY - JOUR
T1 - Printable elastic conductors by in situ formation of silver nanoparticles from silver flakes
AU - Matsuhisa, Naoji
AU - Inoue, Daishi
AU - Zalar, Peter
AU - Jin, Hanbit
AU - Matsuba, Yorishige
AU - Itoh, Akira
AU - Yokota, Tomoyuki
AU - Hashizume, Daisuke
AU - Someya, Takao
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the JST ERATO Bio-Harmonized Electronics Project. The authors appreciate T. Kikitsu and Y. Maebashi at the Materials Characterization Support Unit, CEMS, RIKEN for discussions on the observation ofAg nanoparticles. The authors also acknowledge Y. Jimbo, A. Miyamoto, M. Mori and K. Okaniwa at the UniversityofTokyo for discussions regardingthe fabrication processes of printed stretchable sensors, and T. Sekitani at Osaka University for discussions on the design ofelastic conductors. The authors would also like to express their gratitude to D. Ordinario, S. Lee and H. Jinno at University of Tokyo, S. Park and X. Xu at RIKEN, and M. Kaltenbrunner at Johannes Kepler University Linz for helpful discussions. The authors are grateful to Daikin Industries for gifting the fluorine rubbers used in this work,along with Yasushi Sano (S-P Solutions)and Goo Chemicals for providing the printable rigid resist. The SEM images were obtained at the shared facilities at RIKEN. N.M. is supported by Advanced Leading Graduate Course for Photon Science (ALPS) and the Japan Societyfor the Promotion ofScience (JSPS) research fellowship for young scientists. H.J. is supported byGraduate Program for Leaders in Life Innovation (GPLLI).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - Printable elastic conductors promise large-area stretchable sensor/actuator networks for healthcare, wearables and robotics. Elastomers with metal nanoparticles are one of the best approaches to achieve high performance, but large-area utilization is limited by difficulties in their processability. Here we report a printable elastic conductor containing Ag nanoparticles that are formed in situ, solely by mixing micrometre-sized Ag flakes, fluorine rubbers, and surfactant. Our printable elastic composites exhibit conductivity higher than 4,000 S cm-1 (highest value: 6,168 S cm-1) at 0% strain, and 935 S cm-1 when stretched up to 400%. Ag nanoparticle formation is influenced by the surfactant, heating processes, and elastomer molecular weight, resulting in a drastic improvement of conductivity. Fully printed sensor networks for stretchable robots are demonstrated, sensing pressure and temperature accurately, even when stretched over 250%.
AB - Printable elastic conductors promise large-area stretchable sensor/actuator networks for healthcare, wearables and robotics. Elastomers with metal nanoparticles are one of the best approaches to achieve high performance, but large-area utilization is limited by difficulties in their processability. Here we report a printable elastic conductor containing Ag nanoparticles that are formed in situ, solely by mixing micrometre-sized Ag flakes, fluorine rubbers, and surfactant. Our printable elastic composites exhibit conductivity higher than 4,000 S cm-1 (highest value: 6,168 S cm-1) at 0% strain, and 935 S cm-1 when stretched up to 400%. Ag nanoparticle formation is influenced by the surfactant, heating processes, and elastomer molecular weight, resulting in a drastic improvement of conductivity. Fully printed sensor networks for stretchable robots are demonstrated, sensing pressure and temperature accurately, even when stretched over 250%.
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U2 - 10.1038/nmat4904
DO - 10.1038/nmat4904
M3 - Article
C2 - 28504674
AN - SCOPUS:85026387226
SN - 1476-1122
VL - 16
SP - 834
EP - 840
JO - Nature Materials
JF - Nature Materials
IS - 8
ER -