A simple, low-cost approach to prepare flexible highly conductive polymer composites by in situ reduction of silver carboxylate for flexible electronic applications

In recent years, efforts to prepare flexible highly conductive polymer composites at low temperatures for flexible electronic applications have increased significantly. Here, we describe a novel approach for the preparation of flexible highly conductive polymer composites (resistivity: 2.5 × 10−5 Ω cm) at a low temperature (150 °C), enabling the wide use of low cost, flexible substrates such as paper and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The approach involves (i) in situ reduction of silver carboxylate on the surface of silver flakes by a flexible epoxy (diglycidyl ether of polypropylene glycol) to form highly surface reactive nano/submicron-sized particles; (ii) the in situ formed nano/submicron-sized particles facilitate the sintering between silver flakes during curing. Morphology and Raman studies indicated that the improved electrical conductivity was the result of sintering and direct metal–metal contacts between silver flakes. This approach developed for the preparation of flexible highly conductive polymer composites offers significant advantages, including simple low temperature processing, low cost, low viscosity, suitability for low-cost jet dispensing technologies, flexibility while maintaining high conductivity, and tunable mechanical properties. The developed flexible highly conductive materials with these advantages are attractive for current and emerging flexible electronic applications.