Patterning of Metal Nanowire Networks: Methods and Applications

Abstract

With the advance in flexible and stretchable electronics, one-dimensional nanomaterials such as metal nanowires have drawn much attention in the past 10 years or so. Metal nanowires, especially silver nanowires, have been recognized as promising candidate materials for flexible and stretchable electronics. Owing to their high electrical conductivity and high aspect ratio, metal nanowires can form electrical percolation networks, maintaining high electrical conductivity under deformation (e.g., bending and stretching). Apart from coating metal nanowires for making large-area transparent conductive films, many applications require patterned metal nanowires as electrodes and interconnects. Precise patterning of metal nanowire networks is crucial to achieve high device performances. Therefore, a high-resolution, designable, and scalable patterning of metal nanowire networks is important but remains a critical challenge for fabricating high-performance electronic devices. This review summarizes recent advances in patterning of metal nanowire networks, using subtractive methods, additive methods of nanowire dispersions, and printing methods. Representative device applications of the patterned metal nanowire networks are presented. Finally, challenges and important directions in the area of the patterning of metal nanowire networks for device applications are discussed.

Recent Advances in Stretchable and Wearable Capacitive Electrophysiological Sensors for Long-Term Health Monitoring

“…They are usually found in the form of (i) nanowires (NWs) or nanoparticles (NPs); (ii) configuration in flexible/stretchable structure; (iii) liquid state at normal temperature. NWs and NPs are the most attractive active materials to fabricate the composites of piezoresistive and conductive ink as the fillers in sensors, whereas silicon NWs [ 203 ], metal NWs [ 204 , 205 , 206 ], transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) [ 207 ], and silver NWs (AgNWs) are employed onto PDMS to develop resistive sensors [ 132 , 208 ]. Conductive inks with metal NPs have been cast and annealed to construct capacitive sensing electrodes on the substrate surface.…”

Gentle Patterning Approaches toward Compatibility with Bio‐Organic Materials and Their Environmental Aspects

“…These actively evolving techniques also employ suspensions of nanostructures such as single‐walled carbon nanotubes [ 187 ] and metallic nanowires [ 188 ] as the basis of printing materials facilitating microscale conductive lines. Even though 3D printing does not typically allow high‐resolution and localization precision it is hard to underestimate its potential for microfluidics, implantable medicine and microelectronics.…”

Matter & Mind Matter

“…Besides the RRAM goal which may be categorized under the label "More Than Moore", novel and very appealing computer architectures have been proposed in which memristors might play a vital role. Another main focus of possible memristive device applications may be associated with such catchphrases as: non-Boolean computing, bio-inspired information processing, neuromorphic engineering, or cognitive electronics (Zamarreño-Ramos et al, 2011;Ranjan et al, 2017;Huang and Zhu, 2021;Kaspar et al, 2021;Wan et al, 2019). On the local, synaptic level, learning in nervous systems is explained by Hebb's learning rule and Spike-timing dependent plasticity (STDP), amongst others (Bi and Poo, 1998).…”

“…3 (c), a sketch of a nanowire network (NWN) is shown. NWNs have been successfully synthesized for various materials, such as metals, oxides, and semiconductors (Huang and Zhu, 2021;Milano et al, 2022). Nanowires show appealing features with respect to bio-inspired computing from the point of structure, topology, and inherent dynamics (Loeffler et al, 2020;Hochstetter et al, 2021;Diaz-Alvarez et al, 2019;Pantone et al, 2018).…”