Query: Polymer nanocomposite meshes for flexible electronic devices

Candidate papers:

abstract: Abstract Flexible electronic devices featuring fashionable wearability, flexibility, and compatibility are drawing considerable attention for use in touch screens, healthcare monitoring, smart wound dressing, electronic skin, energy harvesting and storage devices, flexible displays and human machine interfacing. Apart from the electrochemical performance, mechanical flexibility and even stretchability are considerable issues for electronic devices to ensure reliable data collection in applications. However, traditional inorganic materials such as metals and semiconductors possess poor mechanical flexibility and limited elasticity. Polymer nanocomposite mesh scaffolds assembled from polymer fibers offer fascinating opportunities for flexible electronic devices by virtue of their inherent flexibility, high surface area, the permeability to air and liquids of the porous mesh structure, and well controlled composition. Emerging progress in high performance flexible electronic devices using polymer mesh based nanocomposites has been achieved through implementations as both passive and active components. In this review, the main design and fabrication strategies of functional polymer nanocomposite mesh scaffolds for flexible electronic devices will be first summarized in brief. Next, the application of polymer nanocomposite meshes as passive components (such as functional substrates, templates, and carbonized precursors) and active components (such as friction layers for nanogenerators, electroactive materials and separators for energy storage devices, and sensing layers for chemical sensors) in various high performance flexible electronic devices will be reviewed in detail. Finally, the challenges and perspectives will be discussed to offer inspiration for the design of advanced polymer nanocomposite meshes, as well as to promote the utilization and integration of polymer nanocomposite mesh scaffolds into flexible electronic devices with outstanding performance and environmental friendliness.
author_names: Min Gong

Liqun Zhang

Pengbo Wan
title: Polymer nanocomposite meshes for flexible electronic devices
year: 2020

abstract: AbstractIn this work, we present the preparation, characterization, and 3D printing of highly conductive, soft, and functional nanocomposite polymers. The prepared nanocomposite is a polymeric system that consists of poly (ionic liquid) (PIL) polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as fillers and an ionic liquid (IL) that acts as a plasticizer and dopant for the MWCNTs. The nanocomposites exhibited variable mechanical (strain at break: 50 250% and conductive properties depending on their composition, and the highest conductivity of 520 Sm 1 was attained with 15 wt. MWCNT loading owing to the well defined morphology of the MWCNTs revealed by SEM. The thermal properties of the nanocomposites were measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) The results revealed high thermal stability up to 340 degC regardless of the composition and a variable transition temperature dependent on the MWCNT, IL, and polymeric contents. Finally, the conditions for 3D printing were optimized, and as a proof of concept, we demonstrated the fabrication of a flexible, 3D printed circuit, which can be bent and twisted without damaging the circuit.AbstractHighly conductive, soft, and 3D printable nanocomposite polymers have been developed that consists of poly (ionic liquid) (PIL) polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as polymeric system, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as fillers and an ionic liquid (IL) that acts as a plasticizer and dopant for the MWCNTs. The nanocomposites exhibited variable mechanical, conductive, and thermal properties depending on the composition of polymer, IL, and MWCNTs. Finally, we optimized the conditions for 3D printing and demonstrated the fabrication of a flexible, 3D printed circuit, which can be bent and twisted without damaging the circuit.
author_names: Kumkum Ahmed

Masaru Kawakami

Ajit Khosla

Hidemitsu Furukawa
title: Soft, conductive nanocomposites based on ionic liquids/carbon nanotubes for 3D printing of flexible electronic devices
venue: Polymer Journal
year: 2019

abstract: Organic inorganic hybrid nanocomposites are an attractive choice for various electronic device applications. Owing to the unique characteristics of hybrid nanocomposites, we have explored the memory effect in a device, based on a 2D material: boron nitride (BN) and a polymer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) This memory device has been fabricated on a flexible ITO coated PET substrate by using an all printed approach including electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) and reciprocating head (RPC) The fabricated device displayed nonvolatile, rewritable and characteristic bipolar resistive switching at a low current compliance and small operating voltage. The conduction mechanism was deduced to be conductive filamentary and verified by the effect of temperature and device size on switching characteristics. Raman, FTIR and UV/Vis spectroscopies were employed in studying the optical properties of as deposited hBN/PVOH thin films. The morphological characteristics were analyzed by FESEM and AFM techniques. A bendability test at various bending diameters (50 4 mm) for 1500 cycles was carried out to show the mechanical robustness of the fabricated device. The remarkably stable and repeatable results of electrical and mechanical characterization make this hybrid nanocomposite a potential candidate for future flexible, robust and low power nonvolatile memory devices.
author_names: Ghayas Uddin Siddiqui

Muhammad Muqeet Rehman

Young Jin Yang

Kyung Hyun Choi
title: A two dimensional hexagonal boron nitride/polymer nanocomposite for flexible resistive switching devices
year: 2017

abstract: Abstract Polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) are technologically smart multifunctional, flexible, and stretchable type materials of high scientific and industrial interest. In this study, PNC films based on host polymer matrix of poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) blended with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) (compositional ratio PVDF/PEO 75/25 wt/wt% and 5 wt% different metal oxide nanoparticles (i.e. Al2O3, SnO2, TiO2, and ZnO) as nanoinclusions have been developed by casting from solution. These films were characterized with advanced techniques namely; SEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, DRS, and UV vis spectroscopy for confirmation of their technological applications. The results evidence that these metal oxide nanoparticles produce significant alterations in the polymers spherulitic morphology, creates a large number of micro to nano sized pores, lowers the b phase content of the PVDF and crystalline phase of PEO, and also the degree of crystallinity of the host matrix. Among these metal oxides, the Al2O3 nanoparticles considerably enhance the dielectric permittivity while other nanofillers anomalously alter the dielectric polarization processes and MWS relaxation of the PNC films in the frequency range 20 Hz 1 MHz at ambient temperature. AC electrical conduction is found relatively high for the Al2O3 and low for ZnO nanoparticles containing PNC films. The optical energy bandgap of these PNC films are sturdily ruled by the characteristic optical properties of the nanofillers. The physical, morphological, structural, dielectric, and optical parameters of these metal oxide nanofillers are considered for the demonstration of relative changes in the investigated properties of the PNC materials. Experimental results evidence multifunctionality of these PNC materials to be used as controllable nanodielectrics for the development of flexible type macro and microelectronic devices in the advances of porous membrane technology, UV shielders, and the optical bandgap tuners.
author_names: Ram Jeewan Sengwa

Priyanka Dhatarwal

Shobhna Choudhary
title: A comparative study of different metal oxide nanoparticles dispersed PVDF/PEO blend matrix based advanced multifunctional nanodielectrics for flexible electronic devices
year: 2020

abstract: With the development of flexible electronic devices, strict requirements for sealing these electronics are put forward. Developing flexible sealants for next generation flexible electronic devices is essential for enabling a broad range of applications. Herein, we demonstrate a facile way to prepare a self healing flexible urea grafted multi walled carbon nanotube/poly(urethane sulfide) nanocomposite with robust mechanical strength, flexibility and high self healing efficiency. On the one hand, urea grafted multi walled carbon nanotubes (urea g MWCNTs) are used as physical cross linking agents, which will improve the mechanical strength and self healing properties of the urea g MWCNTs/poly(urethane sulfide) (U MWC PUS) nanocomposite. On the other hand, urea g MWCNTs act as a photothermal switch, which will absorb near infrared (NIR) irradiation and convert it into thermal energy for local self healing. Owing to the [2+1] radical mediated disulfide exchange reaction and hydrogen bonding interactions in the U MWC PUS nanocomposite, covalent polymer networks can rearrange under thermal stimulation, which endows the U MWC PUS nanocomposite with self healing properties. When the cracked U MWC PUS nanocomposite is kept at an appropriate temperature or treated with NIR irradiation, it can recover more than 90% of the original mechanical strength. At the same time, the self healing mechanism of the flexible U MWC PUS nanocomposite was analyzed. Furthermore, the self healing flexible U MWC PUS nanocomposite exhibits excellent adhesion and sealability in water. Our study may provide a facile way to fabricate self healing flexible U MWC PUS nanocomposites for sealing electronic devices.
author_names: Qiming Yan

Qi-Qi Fu

Jianfeng Hu

Heqing Fu
title: A self healing flexible urea g MWCNTs/poly(urethane sulfide) nanocomposite for sealing electronic devices
year: 2020

abstract: Development of conductive nanocomposites is critical to realize flexible electronics on diverse substrates. Tuning the electrical and mechanical characteristics of these nanocomposites can enable a spectrum of applications. Herein, we demonstrate a robust microfabrication protocol to implement electrically conductive polymer by doping polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with silver fibers, with potential applications in wearable devices, MEMS, and microfluidics. The conductive polymer was made by mixing silver fibers into uncured PDMS matrix. The prepared mixture was micromolded by three dimension (3D) printed master using soft lithography technique. Serpentine and spiral like microstructures were embedded on the nonconductive layer of PDMS. The SEM images show uniform dispersion of silver fibers in the composites. The percolation threshold for the prepared composite was found to be 25 wt% Resistivity of the conductive elastomeric composite at 25 wt% was 0.013 O cm.
author_names: Shreyas Shah

MD Nahin Islam Shiblee

Sajjad Husain Mir

Larry Nagahara

Thomas Thundat

Praveen Kumar Sekhar

Masaru Kawakami

Hidemitsu Furukawa

Ajit Khosla
title: Hybrid micromolding of silver micro fiber doped electrically conductive elastomeric composite polymer for flexible sensors and electronic devices
year: 2018

author_names: Meshal Alzaid
title: Flexible Nanocomposite Thin Films for Electronic Devices
year: 2019

abstract: This paper aims to investigate the structural, optical, electronic and electrical properties of PVA/PVP blend and PVA/PVP blend doped with In2O3 and Cr2O3 nanoparticles to use it for various flexible electronics devices like solar cell, sensors diodes, electronics gates, transistors have low cost, high corrosion resistance, low energy gap, flexible, low weight, high optical and electrical conductivities. The results indicated that absorbance of PVA/PVP blend improved about 30% and 34 with the increase of In2O3 and Cr2O3 nanoparticles concentrations. The energy gap value of PVA/PVP blend was reduces from 2.8 eV of PVA/PVP to 1.2 eV and 1.77 eV as In2O3 and Cr2O3 nanoparticles concentrations increase. Doping PVA/PVP with In2O3 and Cr2O3 nanoparticles enhance the optical constants, electronics parameters and electrical conductivity. The obtained results showed that the doping PVA/PVP blend with In2O3 and Cr2O3 improved the structural, optical, electronic and electrical characteristics which make the (PVA/PVP/In2O3) and (PVA/PVP/Cr2O3) nanocomposites are promising materials for flexible optoelectronics fields in the development of electronics applications.
author_names: Ahmed Hashim
title: Enhanced Structural, Optical, and Electronic Properties of In2O3 and Cr2O3 Nanoparticles Doped Polymer Blend for Flexible Electronics and Potential Applications
venue: Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials
year: 2020

abstract: Stretchable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials are now urgently required owing to recent advancements and wide applications of flexible electronic devices, which produced severe electromagnetic wave pollution, disturbing normal function of electronic devices and causing harmful responses on human body. However, recent studies on flexible EMI shielding materials failed on achieving high shielding effectiveness, large stretchability and excellent transparency. Herein, patterned EMI shielding meshes were fabricated by screen printing the thermoplastic polyurethane/silver micro flakes (TPU/Ag) paste on a thin and flexible TPU substrate. The conductive composites were printed into various mesh patterns including square mesh shape, circle mesh shape, serpentine shape, etc. The EMI shielding meshes exhibit high stretchability of 80% before electrical insulation, high shielding effectiveness (SE) value of 45 dB for the square mesh shape. Therefore, the mesh patterned conductive composites with excellent EMI shielding performance, high flexibility and large stretchability are highly promising for applications in flexible and stretchable electronics.
author_names: Xuebin Liu

Zuomin Lei

Zhiqiang Lin

Yougen Hu

Pengli Zhu

Rong Sun
title: Stretchable and Printable Conductive Polymer Composites for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding Meshes
venue: 2020 21st International Conference on Electronic Packaging Technology (ICEPT)
year: 2020

abstract: Transparent materials are usually insulators while electrically conductive materials are typically opaque at the visible part of the spectrum. Luckily, there is a special class of materials, known as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) such as indium tin oxide (ITO) fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) and zinc oxide etc. have a blendof properties thatmake themboth electrically conductive andhighly transparent in the visible range. Among these oxides films, ITO has the industry standard role and has shown its potential as transparent conductor (TC) in variety of electronic devices such as light emitting diodes (Wu et al. in ACS Nano 4:43, 2010 [1] solar cells (Yu et al. in Adv Mater 23:4453, 2011 [2] displays (Blake et al. in Nano Lett 8:1704, 2008 [3] touchscreens (Wang et al. in Adv Mater 24:2874, 2012 [4] and smart windows (Deb et al. in Electr Acta 46:2125, 2001 [5] In addition to low sheet resistance and high optical transparency needed for conventional TCs, emerging flexible electronic devices also demand excellent flexibility (Hecht et al. in Adv Mater 23:1482, 2011 [6] Ellmer in Nat Photon 6:809, 2012 [7] in next generation TCs. Although ITO based TCs have exhibited desirable performance such as high conductivity, high transmittance in visible region and decent environmental stability, many concerns, including film brittleness (Cairns et al. in Appl Phys Lett 76:1425, 2000 [8] low infrared transmittance (Bel Hadj Tahar et al. in J Appl Phys 83:2631, 1998 [9] low abundance (Kumar and Zhou in ACS Nano 4:11, 2010 [10] and inability of high temperature annealing on plastic substrates, limit its suitability for use in next generation flexible electronic devices. Therefore, novel TCs other than TCOs must be developed to address the challenges in these emerging electronic devices. In order to provide the readers a general background, brief overview of TCs is presented here in this chapter. 1.1 Organic Alternatives to Indium Tin Oxide Similar to other topics in materials science, the most common approach to subcategorized ITO alternatives TCs is to divide these into organic and inorganic. Organic alternatives are: carbon nanotube networks (CNTs) graphene, and some other conducting polymers. (c) Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 A. Khan, Novel Embedded Metal mesh Transparent Electrodes, Springer Theses, https:/doi.org/10.1007/978 981 15 2918 4_1 1 2
author_names: Arshad Khan
title: Novel Embedded Metal mesh Transparent Electrodes: Vacuum free Fabrication Strategies and Applications in Flexible Electronic Devices
year: 2020