Silver nanowire film could take wearables supersonic

The ultrathin film, which is transparent and highly conductive to electric current, has been produced via a method devised by an international team from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Korea University. Their results are reported in Advanced Functional Materials.

The new film, which can be bent and stretched, is made of fused silver nanowire and produced by spraying the nanowire particles at supersonic speed through a tiny jet nozzle. The result is a film with nearly the electrical conductivity of silver-plate and the transparency of glass, said senior author Alexander Yarin, UIC Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

"The silver nanowire is a particle, but very long and thin," Yarin said in a statement. The nanowires measure approximately 20 microns long. Four laid end-to-end would span the width of a human hair but their diameter is a thousand times smaller and significantly smaller than the wavelength of visible light, which minimises light scattering."