posted on 2018-03-19, 00:00authored byYe Zhang, Jiangna Guo, Dan Xu, Yi Sun, Feng Yan
Copper
nanowires (Cu NWs) have become a promising material for
flexible transparent conductive electrodes (FTCEs) owing to their
outstanding transparency and conductivity properties. In this work,
ultralong Cu NWs with an average length over 250 μm and a diameter
of around 50 nm (aspect ratio ∼5000) were synthesized in a
water/polyhydric alcohol cosolvent. The effects of polyhydric alcohols
(including ethanol, ethylene glycol, and glycerol) on the aspect ratio
of Cu NWs were investigated. The diameter of Cu NWs decreased with
the increased number of hydroxyl groups of polyhydric alcohols. In
addition, the capping ligands (oleylamine and oleic acid) and glucose
also exhibit important effects on the dispersity and morphology of
Cu NWs. The ultralong Cu NW-based poly(dimethylsiloxane)
(PDMS) FTCEs exhibit high performance with a low sheet resistance
of 92.1 Ω sq–1 at a transmittance of 91.524%.
Inspired by the stretchable ability of PDMS, wearable sensors were
fabricated to detect the movement of the finger joint through the
chronoamperometry method. The prepared sensors exhibit
high sensitivity and a fast response time. The excellent performance
of FTCEs and wearable sensors suggests that the ultralong Cu NWs have
a bright future in the application of the next generation of flexible
optoelectronic devices.