Electromechanical Enhancement of Metal Nanoparticle Thin Film by Composite Formation with Short Metal Nanowires

Abstract

Recently, metal nanoparticle (NP) based ink solutions are widely used for fabricating flexible electronic devices due to many advantages such as low temperature process, simple and low-cost manufacturing, and compatibility with various flexible substrates. The electromechanical characteristics of metal NP thin films on flexible substrates are very important because they often operate under various mechanical loading conditions. Here, we report an improvement of electromechanical properties of silver (Ag) NP thin films by composite formation with short Ag nanowires (Ag NWs). We fabricated Ag NP-Ag NW hybrid thin films on the flexible polymer substrates, which presented more reliable electromechanical characteristics than the Ag NP thin film. From in situ scanning electron microscope images, we observed a bridging behavior of Ag NWs inhibiting the growth of cracks on the surface as well as in the inside of hybrid thin films. The improvement of electromechanical characteristics by composite formation with short Ag NWs could be also observed in the microscale line patterns, both in the static and cyclic tensile loading conditions.