Polymer Nanofibers via Electrospinning for Flexible Devices

Abstract

Flexible devices promise numerous applications in modernization of human life. Accompanying flexibility into planar devices has greatly improved the applicability of the devices. Electrospun polymer nanofibers have shown the major breakthrough due to their high flexibility overcoming the rigidness of the conventional planar devices. Due to innovative methods and manufacturing processes of novel materials, the flexible devices enabled the design of new architectures that are not possible with conventional planar devices. Novel synthesis techniques for flexible nanofibers have bright future prospects toward academic studies and research in one-dimensional nanomaterials. Electrospun polymer nanofibers have emerged as exciting one-dimensional nanomaterials and empowered as a building material into flexible devices. Tremendous efforts have been focused on exploring the electrospun nanofibers for potential functional applications. Electrospun polymer nanofibers with embedded nanoparticles can be easily fabricated to be used for flexible devices by electrospinning technique. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the capability of electrospinning to fabricate various polymer nanofibers for flexible devices. In this chapter, the fabrication of electrospun polymer nanofibers and their potential applications in flexible devices including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), sensors, UV photodetectors, transparent electrodes and nanogenerators are systematically reviewed along with challenges in synthesizing and designing nanofibers for flexible devices.