Flexible electrodes are not only used in health and wellness applications, but also in flexible touchscreens. Just as you can bend a touchscreen these days, the electrodes behind it must also withstand this new type of mechanical stress. Bending, folding, twisting or stretching place new demands on the electrode material.
Major stress factor: stretching
Stretching, in particular, is one of the biggest stress factors for electrodes, which can quickly lead to material fatigue. If, in addition to flexible cables, you also need a certain degree of transparency, you are even more limited with the design data.
Gold Nanomesh improves extensibility
Recently, a team of scientists published a paper outlining a way to combine a gold nanomesh with a polymer to improve extensibility and eliminate fatigue associated with stretching. To produce the gold nanomesh, the scientists used a technique that requires the deposition of an indium film, which is then etched to form a mask layer. This mask is used to deposit the gold and remove the indium film.
What remains is the gold nanonmesh. According to the documentation, this is then connected to a pre-stretched polymer substrate using compressed air. As a result, the flexibility of the electrode improves. The team of scientists has also investigated other points, such as how different mesh configurations interact with the tension, or how the strain affects the electrical resistance and film transparency, etc.
If you would like to learn more about the results of the study, you can download the report published in September 2015. The full report is available at the URL mentioned in our source.
