Stretchable conductors have attracted tremendous attention owing to their potential applications as electrodes and sensing elements for wearable electronic devices. In this study, we have developed an inkjet printing process to directly embed and align silver nanowires in the polydimethylsiloxane elastomer for stretchable conductors. Instead of printing on top of elastomers, we printed the silver nanowires directly into an uncured liquid elastomer layer to embed the conductive nanowires, therefore eliminating the problems with surface wetting and delamination in conventional approaches, where the conductor is patterned on top of elastomers. This study investigated the process controls to tune the embedment depth and alignment of silver nanowires through inkjet printing. The printing process was captured with a high-speed camera to elucidate the mechanisms that direct the printed features. By controlling the thickness of the liquid elastomer layer and the post-printing treatment of printed lines, stretchable conductors composed of embedded silver nanowires have been fabricated in a single step. Because of the reflow of the viscous liquid elastomer, the printed silver nanowires are aligned along the printing direction, resulting in linewidth of tens of micrometers upon solvent removal. The stretchable conductors showed good mechanical and electrical stability under repeated bending and stretching/releasing cycles. This method of directly embedding silver nanowires into a liquid elastomer offers facile heterogeneous integration for digital patterning of stretchable electronics.

中文翻译：

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通过喷墨印刷将银纳米线直接嵌入和对准可拉伸导体

可拉伸导体由于其作为可穿戴电子设备的电极和传感元件的潜在应用而备受关注。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种喷墨印刷工艺，可将银纳米线直接嵌入并对准可拉伸导体的聚二甲基硅氧烷弹性体。我们将银纳米线直接印刷到未固化的液态弹性体层中以嵌入导电纳米线，而不是在弹性体的顶部进行印刷，因此消除了传统方法中导体在弹性体上构图的表面润湿和分层的问题。这项研究调查了通过喷墨印刷调整银纳米线的嵌入深度和对准的过程控制。使用高速相机捕获了打印过程，以阐明指导打印特征的机制。通过控制液体弹性体层的厚度和印刷线路的印刷后处理，可以在一个步骤中制造出由嵌入式银纳米线组成的可拉伸导体。由于粘性液体弹性体的回流，印刷的银纳米线沿印刷方向排列，在除去溶剂后导致数十微米的线宽。在反复弯曲和拉伸/释放循环下，可拉伸导体表现出良好的机械和电稳定性。将银纳米线直接嵌入液态弹性体的这种方法为可拉伸电子设备的数字图案化提供了便捷的异构集成。