Highly Sensitive and Stretchable Multidimensional Strain Sensor with Prestrained Anisotropic Metal Nanowire Percolation Networks.

To overcome the limitation of the conventional single axis-strain sensor, we demonstrate a multidimensional strain sensor composed of two layers of prestrained silver nanowire percolation network with decoupled and polarized electrical response in principal and perpendicular directional strain. The information on strain vector is successfully measured up to 35% maximum strain with large gauge factor (>20). The potential of the proposed sensor as a versatile wearable device has been further confirmed.

Ag/Au/Polypyrrole Core-shell Nanowire Network for Transparent, Stretchable and Flexible Supercapacitor in Wearable Energy Devices.

Transparent and stretchable energy storage devices have attracted significant interest due to their potential to be applied to biocompatible and wearable electronics. Supercapacitors that use the reversible faradaic redox reaction of conducting polymer have a higher specific capacitance as compared with electrical double-layer capacitors. Typically, the conducting polymer electrode is fabricated through direct electropolymerization on the current collector. However, no research have been conducted on metal nanowires as current collectors for the direct electropolymerization, even though the metal nanowire network structure has proven to be superior as a transparent, flexible, and stretchable electrode platform because the conducting polymer's redox potential for polymerization is higher than that of widely studied metal nanowires such as silver and copper. In this study, we demonstrated a highly transparent and stretchable supercapacitor by developing Ag/Au/Polypyrrole core-shell nanowire networks as electrode by coating the surface of Ag NWs with a thin layer of gold, which provide higher redox potential than the electropolymerizable monomer. The Ag/Au/Polypyrrole core-shell nanowire networks demonstrated superior mechanical stability under various mechanical bending and stretching. In addition, proposed supercapacitors showed fine optical transmittance together with fivefold improved areal capacitance compared to pristine Ag/Au core-shell nanowire mesh-based supercapacitors.

Nanowire-on-Nanowire: All-Nanowire Electronics by On-Demand Selective Integration of Hierarchical Heterogeneous Nanowires.

Exploration of the electronics solely composed of bottom-up synthesized nanowires has been largely limited due to the complex multistep integration of diverse nanowires. We report a single-step, selective, direct, and on-demand laser synthesis of a hierarchical heterogeneous nanowire-on-nanowire structure (secondary nanowire on the primary backbone nanowire) without using any conventional photolithography or vacuum deposition. The highly confined temperature rise by laser irradiation on the primary backbone metallic nanowire generates a highly localized nanoscale temperature field and photothermal reaction to selectively grow secondary branch nanowires along the backbone nanowire. As a proof-of-concept for an all-nanowire electronics demonstration, an all-nanowire UV sensor was successfully fabricated without using conventional fabrication processes.

Highly Stretchable and Transparent Supercapacitor by Ag-Au Core-Shell Nanowire Network with High Electrochemical Stability.

Stretchable and transparent electronics have steadily attracted huge attention in wearable devices. Although Ag nanowire is the one of the most promising candidates for transparent and stretchable electronics, its electrochemical instability has forbidden its application to the development of electrochemical energy devices such as supercapacitors. Here, we introduce a highly stretchable and transparent supercapacitor based on electrochemically stable Ag-Au core-shell nanowire percolation network electrode. We developed a simple solution process to synthesize the Ag-Au core-shell nanowire with excellent electrical conductivity as well as greatly enhanced chemical and electrochemical stabilities compared to pristine Ag nanowire. The proposed core-shell nanowire-based supercapacitor still possesses fine optical transmittance and outstanding mechanical stability up to 60% strain. The Ag-Au core-shell nanowire can be a strong candidate for future wearable electrochemical energy devices.

Low-Temperature Oxidation-Free Selective Laser Sintering of Cu Nanoparticle Paste on a Polymer Substrate for the Flexible Touch Panel Applications.

Copper nanomaterials suffer from severe oxidation problem despite the huge cost effectiveness. The effect of two different processes for conventional tube furnace heating and selective laser sintering on copper nanoparticle paste is compared in the aspects of chemical, electrical and surface morphology. The thermal behavior of the copper thin films by furnace and laser is compared by SEM, XRD, FT-IR, and XPS analysis. The selective laser sintering process ensures low annealing temperature, fast processing speed with remarkable oxidation suppression even in air environment while conventional tube furnace heating experiences moderate oxidation even in Ar environment. Moreover, the laser-sintered copper nanoparticle thin film shows good electrical property and reduced oxidation than conventional thermal heating process. Consequently, the proposed selective laser sintering process can be compatible with plastic substrate for copper based flexible electronics applications.

Laser-Induced Hydrothermal Growth of Heterogeneous Metal-Oxide Nanowire on Flexible Substrate by Laser Absorption Layer Design.

Recent development of laser-induced hydrothermal growth enabled direct digital growth of ZnO nanowire array at an arbitrary position even on 3D structures by creating a localized temperature field through a photothermal reaction in liquid environment. However, its spatial size was generally limited by the size of the focused laser spot and the thermal diffusion, and the target material has been limited to ZnO. In this paper, we demonstrated a next generation laser-induced hydrothermal growth method to grow nanowire on a selected area that is even smaller than the laser focus size by designing laser absorption layer. The control of laser-induced temperature field was achieved through adjusting the physical properties of the substrate (dimension and thermal conductivity), and it enabled a successful synthesis of smaller nanowire array without changing any complex optics. Through precise localized temperature control with laser, this approach could be extended to various nanowires including ZnO and TiO2 nanowires even on heat sensitive polymer substrate.

Digital selective growth of a ZnO nanowire array by large scale laser decomposition of zinc acetate.

We develop a digital direct writing method for ZnO NW micro-patterned growth on a large scale by selective laser decomposition of zinc acetate. For ZnO NW growth, by replacing the bulk heating with the scanning focused laser as a fully digital local heat source, zinc acetate crystallites can be selectively activated as a ZnO seed pattern to grow ZnO nanowires locally on a larger area. Together with the selective laser sintering process of metal nanoparticles, more than 10,000 UV sensors have been demonstrated on a 4 cm × 4 cm glass substrate to develop all-solution processible, all-laser mask-less digital fabrication of electronic devices including active layer and metal electrodes without any conventional vacuum deposition, photolithographic process, premade mask, high temperature and vacuum environment.