Three-dimensional highly conductive silver nanowires sponges based on cotton-templated porous structures for stretchable conductors

Abstract

A stretchable cotton–Ag nanowire–poly(dimethylsiloxane) (cotton–AgNWs–PDMS) conductor was fabricated by embedding the unique binary conductive network structure of cotton–AgNWs in PDMS through a simple dip-coating method. The binary conductive network structure was constructed based on cotton which had an interconnected and junction-free macroporous structure as the skeleton to support the two dimensional AgNWs network, leading to excellent electrical and mechanical properties. The conductivity of the stretchable conductor can be adjusted easily by varying the dip-coating cycles, which can reach a highest electrical conductivity of 56.82 S cm⁻¹. The cotton–AgNWs–PDMS composite can retain excellent conductance under large tensile strains (120%). Moreover, the excellent conductance is maintained up to 1000 stretching or bending cycles. Because of the high conductivity and excellent stretchability, together with the facile fabrication process, the cotton–AgNWs–PDMS stretchable conductor might be widely used as interconnects and electrodes for stretchable intelligent and functional devices.