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Printable elastic conductors by in situ formation of silver nanoparticles from silver flakes

Nature Materials volume 16, pages 834–840 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

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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Figure 1: Printable elastic conductors by in situ formation of silver nanoparticles from silver flakes.
Figure 2: Electrical characteristics of elastic conductors with different formulations.
Figure 3: Stretchable and fully printed sensor networks for stretchable robotics.

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Acknowledgements

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 of Ag nanoparticles. The authors also acknowledge Y. Jimbo, A. Miyamoto, M. Mori and K. Okaniwa at the University of Tokyo for discussions regarding the fabrication processes of printed stretchable sensors, and T. Sekitani at Osaka University for discussions on the design of elastic 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 Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) research fellowship for young scientists. H.J. is supported by Graduate Program for Leaders in Life Innovation (GPLLI).

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  1. Peter Zalar

    Present address: Holst Centre/TNO, High Tech Campus 31, 5605 KN, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

    Naoji Matsuhisa, Peter Zalar, Hanbit Jin, Yorishige Matsuba, Akira Itoh, Tomoyuki Yokota & Takao Someya

  2. Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

    Daishi Inoue, Daisuke Hashizume & Takao Someya

  3. Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), 2-11-16, Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan

    Peter Zalar, Yorishige Matsuba, Akira Itoh, Tomoyuki Yokota & Takao Someya

  4. Thin-Film Device Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

    Takao Someya

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Contributions

N.M., H.J. and T.Y. fabricated materials and devices. N.M., D.I., T.Y. and D.H. characterized elastic conductors. N.M., D.I., Y.M., A.I., P.Z. and D.H. analysed the data. N.M., H.J., Y.M., A.I. and T.S. designed materials. N.M., H.J., P.Z. and T.S. wrote manuscript. T.S. supervised this project.

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Correspondence to Takao Someya.

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Matsuhisa, N., Inoue, D., Zalar, P. et al. Printable elastic conductors by in situ formation of silver nanoparticles from silver flakes. Nature Mater 16, 834–840 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4904

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