Abstract
Flexible electrodes play an increasing role for medical applications, such as ECG (electrocardiography) or TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) due to comfort in use and thus their suitability for health monitoring under movement and during sport. Polymers, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), are promising for the development of fabrication methods and materials for such application cases, as stable flexible thin polymer membranes can be produced at large scale. We have compared different up-scalable fabrication techniques of thin electrode membranes based on PVDF as a function of silver nanowire concentration, using electrospinning, spincoating, and drop-casting techniques. The produced thin films and membranes and thin films were investigated by electrical four-point probing, optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, as well as by stability tests under bending, and water exposure. We show, that a combination of electrospinning and spin-coating presents a reliable method for the fabrication of AgNW-PVDF based flexible nanofiber membrane electrodes (NMEs). Our nanofiber membrane electrodes (NMEs) exhibit a 10 times lower sheet resistance than AgNW-PVDF thin film electrodes (TFEs) produced for comparisons by a combination of spincoating and drop-casting using the same amounts of AgNWs. Upon immersion in water for up to 48 hours, we do not detect any nanowire release or decomposition of the fabricated electrodes, which is promising in view of application of the AgNW-PVDF composite electrodes in humid environment.
Highlights
The application fields for flexible electrodes are strongly increasing due to the today’s trends of increasing electrical signal monitoring [1,2]
Polymer nanocomposite materials are promising for those fields, as they offer a broad range of mechanical properties, fabrication and formulation techniques to implement desired properties such as electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility and stretchability, and water resistance or water repellence. Polymers, such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), are in particular promising for the development of fabrication methods and materials for such application cases, as stable flexible thin membranes can be produced at large scale
Analyse, and compare flexible electrodes of two types: (i) thin film electrodes (TFEs) which are fabricated by AgNW network formation by spincoating on glass, followed by drop casting of PVDF and subsequent peel-off and (ii) nanofiber membrane electrodes (NMEs) which are fabricated by electrospinning of PVDF membranes followed by spincoating of AgNW
Summary
The application fields for flexible electrodes are strongly increasing due to the today’s trends of increasing electrical signal monitoring [1,2]. That a combination of electrospinning and spin-coating presents a reliable method for the fabrication of AgNW-PVDF based flexible nanofiber membrane electrodes (NMEs).
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