Fully Elastic Conductive Films from Viscoelastic Composites

Abstract

We investigated, for the first time, the conditions where a thermoplastic conductive composite can exhibit completely reversible stretchability at high elongational strains (epsilon = 1.8). We studied a composite of Au nanosheets and a polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene block copolymer as an example. The composite had an outstandingly low sheet resistance (0.45 Omega/sq). We found that when a thin thermoplastic composite film is placed on a relatively thicker chemically cross-linked elastomer film, it can follow the reversible elastic behavior of the bottom elastomer. Such elasticity comes from the restoration of the block copolymer microstructure. The strong adhesion of the thermoplastic polymer to the metallic fillers is advantageous in the fabrication of mechanically robust, highly conductive, stretchable electrodes. The chemical stability of the Au composite was used to fabricate high luminescence, stretchable electrochemiluminescence displays with a conventional top-bottom electrode setup and with a horizontal electrode setup.