Fabrication and Application of Highly Stretchable Conductive Fiber-Based Electrode of Epoxy/NBR Electrospun Fibers Spray-Coated with AgNW/PU Composites

Stretchable fiber-based electrodes are highly desired for the applications of wearable electronics owing to their good durability, excellent deformability, and easy attachment onto a curved surface in comparison with thin film electrodes. However, it is a critical challenge to fabricate a fiber-based electrodes with low surface roughness and high conductivity under a large mechanical strain. In this study, the fabrication of stretchable and conductive epoxy/NBR-20 fiber, spray-coated with silver nanowire/waterborne polyurethane composite, is demonstrated via the combination of electrospinning and spray-coating techniques. Such a fiber-based electrode can maintain low resistance (less than 150 omega) by stretching up to 40% strain and sustain at 30% strain for 200 stretch/release cycles. The deformable conductive fibers can serve as a promising fiber-based bottom electrode for resistive memory devices and show volatile DRAM characteristics with an ON/OFF memory ratio of 10(2).