Figure 3: Flexibility and resistance of nanomeshes.
From: Highly stretchable and transparent nanomesh electrodes made by grain boundary lithography
(a) R and R/R0 (inset) as a function of tensile strain. The Au nanomesh with a mesh-size to line-width ratio (M/W) of 18 (red triangles) has a R/R0 of only 13.3 as the sample is stretched to a strain of 160%. Another Au nanomesh sample with a lower M/W of 8 (black squares) presents worse stretchability. (b) Rs and Rs/Rs0 (inset) as a function of tensile strain for Au nanomeshes. The sample with an M/W ratio of 18 shows a Rs/Rs0 of only 3.2 when it is stretched to 160%; and Rs is even lower than Rs0 below 80% strain. The sample with M/W of 8 reveals a higher sheet resistance change, which reaches 12.3 at a strain of 140%. (c) and (d) Stretching two sheets of letter-sized papers containing an array of slits with coarse and fine ligaments, respectively. The closely spaced slits appear to be much more stretchable. Scale bar, 10 cm. (e) Change in resistance versus cycles (up to 1,000 cycles) of two Au nanomesh samples with M/W of 18, normalized R/R0 is also shown. Magenta symbols represent 100% strain while black symbols represent 50% strain. (f) R/R0 as a function of bending cycles. The sample is bent to a ‘V’ shape (inset) so that the bending radius is far smaller than 1 mm (the Au nanomesh is on the top side). After 500 cycles of bending, R/R0 has an acceptable increase to 1.9.
