Stressing nano particles fine-tunes material properties

The newly patented method from Sandia researcher Hongyou Fan and colleagues uses pressure – described as a type of embossing - to produce finer and cleaner results in forming silver nanostructures than chemical methods, which are inflexible in their results and leave harmful by-products to dispose of. The research is detailed in Nature Communications.

Fan calls his approach ‘a simple stress-based fabrication method’ that, when applied to nanoparticle arrays, forms new nanostructures with tuneable properties.

‘There is a great potential market for this technology,’ he said in a statement. ‘It can be readily and directly integrated into current industrial manufacturing lines without creating new expensive and specialised equipment.’

‘This is a foundational method that should enable a variety of devices, including flexible electronics such as antennas, chemical sensors and strain detectors,’ said Sandia co-author Paul Clem. It also would produce transparent electrodes for solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes.