Electrospinning is a versatile and viable technique for generating ultrathin fibers. Remarkable progress has been made with regard to the development of electrospinning methods and engineering of electrospun nanofibers to suit or enable various applications. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of electrospinning, including the principle, methods, materials, and applications. We begin with a brief introduction to the early history of electrospinning, followed by discussion of its principle and typical apparatus. We then discuss its renaissance over the past two decades as a powerful technology for the production of nanofibers with diversified compositions, structures, and properties. Afterward, we discuss the applications of electrospun nanofibers, including their use as "smart" mats, filtration membranes, catalytic supports, energy harvesting/conversion/storage components, and photonic and electronic devices, as well as biomedical scaffolds. We highlight the most relevant and recent advances related to the applications of electrospun nanofibers by focusing on the most representative examples. We also offer perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and new directions for future development. At the end, we discuss approaches to the scale-up production of electrospun nanofibers and briefly discuss various types of commercial products based on electrospun nanofibers that have found widespread use in our everyday life.

Electrospinning and Electrospun Nanofibers: Methods, Materials, and Applications

The demand for flexible and wearable electronic devices is increasing due to their facile interaction with human body. Flexible, stretchable and wearable sensors can be easily mounted on clothing or directly attached onto the body. Especially, highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensors are needed for the human motion detection. Here, we report highly flexible, stretchable and sensitive strain sensors based on the nanocomposite of silver nanowire (AgNW) network and PDMS elastomer in the form of the sandwich structure (i.e., AgNW thin film embedded between two layers of PDMS). The AgNW network-elastomer nanocomposite based strain sensors show strong piezoresistivity with tunable gauge factors in the ranges of 2 to 14 and a high stretchability up to 70%. We demonstrate the applicability of our high performance strain sensors by fabricating a glove integrated with five strain sensors for the motion detection of fingers and control of an avatar in the virtual environment.

Highly Stretchable and Sensitive Strain Sensor Based on Silver Nanowire–Elastomer Nanocomposite

Low-Bandgap Near-IR Conjugated Polymers/Molecules for Organic Electronics

Conjugated polymers and related processing techniques have been developed for organic electronic devices ranging from lightweight photovoltaics to flexible displays. These breakthroughs have recently been used to create organic thermoelectric materials, which have potential for wearable heating and cooling devices, and near-room-temperature energy generation. So far, the best thermoelectric materials have been inorganic compounds (such as Bi2Te3) that have relatively low Earth abundance and are fabricated through highly complex vacuum processing routes. Molecular materials and hybrid organic–inorganic materials now demonstrate figures of merit approaching those of these inorganic materials, while also exhibiting unique transport behaviours that are suggestive of optimization pathways and device geometries that were not previously possible. In this Review, we discuss recent breakthroughs for organic materials with high thermoelectric figures of merit and indicate how these materials may be incorporated into new module designs that take advantage of their mechanical and thermoelectric properties. Thermoelectrics can be used to harvest energy and control temperature. Organic semiconducting materials have thermoelectric performance comparable to many inorganic materials near room temperature. Better understanding of their performance will provide a pathway to new types of conformal thermoelectric modules.

Organic thermoelectric materials for energy harvesting and temperature control

Electrochromics for smart windows: Oxide-based thin films and devices

The class of materials combining high electrical or thermal conductivity, optical transparency and flexibility is crucial for the development of many future electronic and optoelectronic devices. Silver nanowire networks show very promising results and represent a viable alternative to the commonly used, scarce and brittle indium tin oxide. The science and technology research of such networks are reviewed to provide a better understanding of the physical and chemical properties of this nanowire-based material while opening attractive new applications.

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Flexible transparent conductive materials based on silver nanowire networks: a review

Transparent electrodes attract intense attention in many technological fields, including optoelectronic devices, transparent film heaters and electromagnetic applications. New generation transparent electrodes are expected to have three main physical properties: high electrical conductivity, high transparency and mechanical flexibility. The most efficient and widely used transparent conducting material is currently indium tin oxide (ITO). However the scarcity of indium associated with ITO's lack of flexibility and the relatively high manufacturing costs have a prompted search into alternative materials. With their outstanding physical properties, metallic nanowire (MNW)-based percolating networks appear to be one of the most promising alternatives to ITO. They also have several other advantages, such as solution-based processing, and are compatible with large area deposition techniques. Estimations of cost of the technology are lower, in particular thanks to the small quantities of nanomaterials needed to reach industrial performance criteria. The present review investigates recent progress on the main applications reported for MNW networks of any sort (silver, copper, gold, core-shell nanowires) and points out some of the most impressive outcomes. Insights into processing MNW into high-performance transparent conducting thin films are also discussed according to each specific application. Finally, strategies for improving both their stability and integration into real devices are presented.

Metallic Nanowire-Based Transparent Electrodes for Next Generation Flexible Devices: a Review

We demonstrate a new concept for the fabrication of flexible transparent thin film heaters based on silver nanowires. Thanks to the intrinsic properties of random networks of metallic nanowires, it is possible to combine bendability, transparency and high heating performances at low voltage, typically below 12 V which is of interest for many applications. This is currently not possible with transparent conductive oxide technologies, and it compares well with similar devices fabricated with carbon nanotubes or graphene. We present experiments on glass and poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) substrates (with thicknesses of 125 μm and extremely thin 1.3 μm) with excellent heating performances. We point out that the amount of silver necessary to realize the transparent heaters is very low and we also present preliminary results showing that this material can be efficiently used to fabricate photochromic displays. To our knowledge, this is the first report of metallic nanowire-based transparent thin film heaters. We think these results could be a useful approach for the engineering of highly flexible and transparent heaters which are not attainable by existing processes. 
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Highly flexible transparent film heaters based on random networks of silver nanowires

A simple method for improving the Seebeck coefficient of PEDOT:PSS up to 161 μV K−1 is presented and combined with a new process for transferring thick (>10 μm) films of PEDOT:PSS onto substrates with various shapes, and in particular onto flexible substrates. These reduced transferred films have been used in combination with a nickel ethylenetetrathiolate coordination polymer to fabricate cheap and flexible heat flux sensors.

Improvement of the Seebeck coefficient of PEDOT:PSS by chemical reduction combined with a novel method for its transfer using free-standing thin films

Flexible transparent electrodes fabricated with random networks of silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been widely studied in recent years. This approach appears to be a promising alternative to replace ITO (indium tin oxide) in many optoelectronic applications. Many successful integrations in functional devices have already evidenced the high potential of this technology, but unfortunately only very few studies have been dedicated so far to the stability of this material. We present here a study dealing with the alteration of the electrical properties of AgNW meshes when subjected to different stresses. We demonstrate that AgNW electrodes are very stable when stored under ambient atmosphere up to, at least, two and a half years. Accelerated ageing processes also reveal that concentrated H2S or exposure to light does not cause any significant sheet resistance modification. However, the combination of high relative humidity and high temperature seems to be more critical. In addition, long lasting contact (two years) with PEDOT:PSS can induce deterioration of the electrical properties. Similarly, AgNW/PEDOT:PSS hybrid materials exhibit weaker stability under electrical stress when compared to pristine AgNW networks.

Caroline Celle

Papers

Flexible transparent conductive materials based on silver nanowire networks: a review

Metallic Nanowire-Based Transparent Electrodes for Next Generation Flexible Devices: a Review

Highly flexible transparent film heaters based on random networks of silver nanowires

Improvement of the Seebeck coefficient of PEDOT:PSS by chemical reduction combined with a novel method for its transfer using free-standing thin films

Stability of silver nanowire based electrodes under environmental and electrical stresses