Rapid production of large-area, transparent and stretchable electrodes using metal nanofibers as wirelessly operated wearable heaters

A rapidly growing interest in wearable electronics has led to the development of stretchable and transparent heating films that can replace the conventional brittle and opaque heaters. Herein, we describe the rapid production of large-area, stretchable and transparent electrodes using electrospun ultra-long metal nanofibers (mNFs) and demonstrate their potential use as wirelessly operated wearable heaters. These mNF networks provide excellent optoelectronic properties (sheet resistance of similar to 1.3 O per sq with an optical transmittance of similar to 90%) and mechanical reliability (90% stretchability). The optoelectronic properties can be controlled by adjusting the area fraction of the mNF networks, which also enables the modulation of the power consumption of the heater. For example, the low sheet resistance of the heater presents an outstanding power efficiency of 0.65 W cm(-2) (with the temperature reaching 250 degrees C at a low DC voltage of 4.5 V), which is similar to 10 times better than the properties of conventional indium tin oxide-based heaters. Furthermore, we demonstrate the wireless fine control of the temperature of the heating film using Bluetooth smart devices, which suggests substantial promise for the application of this heating film in next-generation wearable electronics

Application of patterned Ag-nanowire networks to transparent thin-film heaters and electrodes for organic light-emitting diodes

We present patterned Ag-nanowire (AgNW) networks for their application to transparent electrodes in flexible devices. Using capillary-force-based soft lithography (CFL), we formed 25- to 30-mu m-wide line patterns of AgNWs on flexible polymer substrates. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and transparent thin-film heaters (TFHs) were successfully fabricated on the patterned substrates, which verified the potential of AgNW patterns formed by CFL as interconnects in flexible devices. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics113sciescopu