Stretchable transparent conductors based on copper nanowires and polyurethane

Transparent conductors (TCs) based on metal nanowires have emerged as an outstanding alternative of indium tin oxide (ITO) film in particular for wearable sensors, solar cells and other flexible devices. Copper nanowire (CuNW) TCs featured by low-cost and high conductivity have attracted much attention in these days. The fabrication of CuNW TCs is usually complicated by sintering process involving high temperature and reducing atmosphere, and multi-step transfer methods. Here, a fast high intensity pulse light sintering technique was applied to achieve CuNW TCs with high conductivity of 2.54 ohm/sq on polyurethane (PU) substrates. Importantly, the CuNWs-PU TCs exhibited excellent stretchability with resistance increase of only 4.3 times after 20% strain for 100 cycles.