A highly stretchable metal electrode is developed via the solution-processing of very long (>100 μm) metallic nanowires and subsequent percolation network formation via low-temperature nanowelding. The stretchable metal electrode from very long metal nanowires demonstrated high electrical conductivity (~9 ohm sq(-1) ) and mechanical compliance (strain > 460%) at the same time. This method is expected to overcome the performance limitation of the current stretchable electronics such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, and buckled nanoribbons.

In this paper, in order to increase the power conversion efficiency we demonstrated the selective growth of "nanoforest" composed of high density, long branched "treelike" multigeneration hierarchical ZnO nanowire photoanodes. The overall light-conversion efficiency of the branched ZnO nanowire DSSCs was almost 5 times higher than the efficiency of DSSCs constructed by upstanding ZnO nanowires. The efficiency increase is due to greatly enhanced surface area for higher dye loading and light harvesting, and also due to reduced charge recombination by providing direct conduction pathways along the crystalline ZnO "nanotree" multi generation branches. We performed a parametric study to determine optimum hierarchical ZnO nanowire photoanodes through the combination of both length-wise growth and branched growth processes. The novel selective hierarchical growth approach represents a low cost, all solution processed hydrothermal method that yields complex hierarchical ZnO nanowire photoanodes by utilizing a simple engineering of seed particles and capping polymer.

The future electronics will be soft, flexible and even stretchable to be more human friendly in the form of wearable computers. However, conventional electronic materials are usually brittle. Recently, carbon based materials are intensively investigated as a good candidate for flexible electronics but with limited mechanical and electrical performances. Metal is still the best material for electronics with great electrical properties but with poor transparency and mechanical performance. Here we present a simple approach to develop a synthesis method for very long metallic nanowires and apply them as new types of high performance flexible and transparent metal conductors as an alternative to carbon nanotubes, graphene and short nanowire based flexible transparent conductors and indium tin oxide based brittle transparent conductors. We found that very long metallic nanowire network conductors combined with a low temperature laser nano-welding process enabled superior transparent flexible conductors with high transmittance and high electrical conductivity. Further, we demonstrated highly flexible metal conductor LED circuits and transparent touch panels. The highly flexible and transparent metal conductors can be mounted on any non-planar surfaces and applied for various opto-electronics and ultimately for future wearable electronics.

A highly stretchable and transparent electrical heater is demonstrated by constructing a partially embedded silver nanowire percolative network on an elastic substrate. The stretchable network heater is applied on human wrists under real-time strain, bending, and twisting, and has potential for lightweight, biocompatible, and versatile wearable applications.

To overcome the limitation of the conventional single axis-strain sensor, we demonstrate a multidimensional strain sensor composed of two layers of prestrained silver nanowire percolation network with decoupled and polarized electrical response in principal and perpendicular directional strain. The information on strain vector is successfully measured up to 35% maximum strain with large gauge factor (>20). The potential of the proposed sensor as a versatile wearable device has been further confirmed.

All-printed electronics is the key technology to ultra-low-cost, large-area electronics. As a critical step in this direction, we demonstrate that laser sintering of inkjet-printed metal nanoparticles enables low-temperature metal deposition as well as high-resolution patterning to overcome the resolution limitation of the current inkjet direct writing processes. To demonstrate this process combined with the implementation of air-stable carboxylate-functionalized polythiophenes, high-resolution organic transistors were fabricated in ambient pressure and room temperature without utilizing any photolithographic steps or requiring a vacuum deposition process. Local thermal control of the laser sintering process could minimize the heat-affected zone and the thermal damage to the substrate and further enhance the resolution of the process. This local nanoparticle deposition and energy coupling enable an environmentally friendly and cost-effective process as well as a low-temperature manufacturing sequence to realize large-area, flexible electronics on polymer substrates.

A facile fast laser nanoscale welding process uses the plasmonic effect at a nanowire (NW) junction to suppress oxidation and successfully fabricate a Cu-NW-based percolation-network conductor. The "nanowelding" process does not require an inert or vacuum environment. Due to the low-temperature and fast-process nature, plasmonic laser nanowelding may form Cu-nanowire networks on heat-sensitive, flexible or even stretchable substrates.

We introduce a facile approach to fabricate a metallic grid transparent conductor on a flexible substrate using selective laser sintering of metal nanoparticle ink. The metallic grid transparent conductors with high transmittance (>85%) and low sheet resistance (30 Ω/sq) are readily produced on glass and polymer substrates at large scale without any vacuum or high-temperature environment. Being a maskless direct writing method, the shape and the parameters of the grid can be easily changed by CAD data. The resultant metallic grid also showed a superior stability in terms of adhesion and bending. This transparent conductor is further applied to the touch screen panel, and it is confirmed that the final device operates firmly under continuous mechanical stress.