A chemist and her team of researchers have made a major stride forward in the race to make cell phones, televisions and other electronics that can bend and stretch.
Tricia Carmichael, an associate professor in chemistry and biochemistry, and her PhD student Michael Miller, are two of five co-authors on a recently published paper describing a process that uses tiny silver nanowires as conductors and then arranging and mixing them right in to the adhesive that bonds them to surfaces like the plastic which could be used in bendable electronic devices.
“Glues are really durable material, so it made sense to do it that way,” Dr. Carmichael said of the never-before-used process described in the academic journal Applied Materials and Interfaces. “We wanted it to be general enough that it could be used by everyone in the industry. It’s just really practical.”
Until now, manufacturers have relied on indium tin oxide as a conductor in electronic light-emitting displays, but it’s completely unsuitable for flexible devices because it’s a brittle ceramic which cracks under relatively low bending strains and causes electrical failure.
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