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Giant Poisson's Effect for Wrinkle‐Free Stretchable Transparent Electrodes
Author(s) -
Wang Yan,
Liu Qihan,
Zhang Jianming,
Hong Tianzeng,
Sun Wenting,
Tang Lu,
Arnold Eric,
Suo Zhigang,
Hong Wei,
Ren Zhifeng,
Guo Chuan Fei
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201902955
Subject(s) - materials science , stretchable electronics , transparency (behavior) , wrinkle , electrode , poisson's ratio , composite material , flexible electronics , auxetics , substrate (aquarium) , bilayer , optical transparency , electronics , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , poisson distribution , membrane , computer science , electrical engineering , computer security , mathematics , chemistry , oceanography , engineering , biology , genetics , statistics , geology
Abstract The next generation of flexible electronics will require highly stretchable and transparent electrodes, many of which consist of a relatively stiff metal network (or carbon materials) and an underlying soft substrate. Typically, such a stiff–soft bilayer suffers from wrinkling or folding when subjected to strains, causing high surface roughness and seriously deteriorated optical transparency. In this work, a network with a giant effective Poisson's ratio on a soft substrate is found to be under biaxial tension upon deformation, and thus does not wrinkle or fold, but maintains smooth surfaces and high transparency. Soft tactile sensors employing such network electrodes exhibit high transparency and low fatigue over many stretching cycles. Such a giant Poisson's ratio has the same effect in other systems. This work offers a new understanding of surface instabilities and a general strategy to prevent them not only in flexible electronics, but also in other materials and mechanical structures that require flat surfaces.