Facile Fabrication of Flexible Electrodes and Immobilization of Silver Nanoparticles on Nanoscale Silicate Platelets to Form Highly Conductive Nanohybrid Films for Wearable Electronic Devices

Peng-Yang Huang; Chih-Wei Chiu; Chen-Yang Huang; Sheng-Yen Shen; Yen-Chen Lee; Chih-Chia Cheng; Ru-Jong Jeng; Jiang-Jen Lin

doi:10.3390/nano10010065

Facile Fabrication of Flexible Electrodes and Immobilization of Silver Nanoparticles on Nanoscale Silicate Platelets to Form Highly Conductive Nanohybrid Films for Wearable Electronic Devices

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2019 Dec 27;10(1):65. doi: 10.3390/nano10010065.

Authors

Peng-Yang Huang¹, Chih-Wei Chiu², Chen-Yang Huang², Sheng-Yen Shen¹, Yen-Chen Lee², Chih-Chia Cheng³, Ru-Jong Jeng¹, Jiang-Jen Lin⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polymer Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan.
³ Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan.

Abstract

This study investigated films with remarkably high electrical conductivity after they were easily prepared from organic/inorganic nanohybrid solutions containing an organic polymeric dispersant and two-dimensional nanoscale silicate platelets as the inorganic stabilizer dispersed with silver nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy shows that the production of silver nanoparticles synthesized by the in situ chemical reduction of AgNO₃ in an aqueous solution by N,N-dimethylformamide results in an average silver nanoparticle diameter of circa 20 nm. Thin films of silver nanoparticles were prepared on a 1-μm-thick film with a low sheet resistance of 8.24 × 10^-4 Ω/sq, achieved through the surface migration of silver nanoparticles and prepared by sintering at 300 °C to form an interconnected network. This was achieved with a silver nanoparticle content of 5 wt%, using nanoscale silicate platelets/polyoxyethylene-segmented polyimide/AgNO₃ at a weight ratio of 1:10:35. During sintering, the color of the hybrid film changed from gold to milky white, suggesting the migration of silver nanoparticles and the formation of an interconnected network. The results show promise for the fabrication of novel silver-based electrocardiogram electrodes and a flexible wireless electrocardiogram measurement system for wearable electronics.

Keywords: dispersion; electrical conductivity; electrocardiogram; nanohybrid film; silicate nanoplatelets; silver nanoparticles.