Conductivity gain for stretchable electronics

Flexible electronics have the potential to be used in a range of applications including displays that can be stretched or for medical implants that move with the body.

‘Essentially the new nanoparticle materials behave as elastic metals,’ said Nicholas Kotov, the Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka Professor of Engineering. ‘It’s just the start of a new family of materials that can be made from a large variety of nanoparticles for a wide range of applications.’

Finding good conductors that still work when pulled to twice their length is a goal of researchers who have so far tried wires in zigzag or spring-like patterns, liquid metals, nanowire networks and more. The team found that spherical gold nanoparticles embedded in polyurethane could out compete the best of these in stretchability and concentration of electrons.

‘We found that nanoparticles aligned into chain form when stretching. That can make excellent conducting pathways,’ said Yoonseob Kim, first author of the study to be published in Nature and a graduate student in the Kotov lab in chemical engineering.