Coaxial-Structured Weavable and Wearable Electroluminescent Fibers

Flexible, lightweight, and wearable devices are currently attracting tremendous interest in the field of advanced electronics. In this work, novel 1D, flexible, coaxial-structured, bright and colorful alternating current electroluminescent (ACEL) fibers consisting of AgNW-based electrodes, a ZnS phosphor layer, and silicone dielectric and encapsulation layers are designed and fabricated through a simple protocol. This facile all-solution-based fabrication protocol enables scalable production of long ACEL fibers (>12 cm). Stemming from the rational design and facile fabrication process, the as-prepared ACEL fibers exhibit uniform, bright, and angularly independent luminance (up to 202 cd m(-2) @ 195 V and 2 kHz). Benefiting mainly from the robust AgNW-based electrodes and versatile silicone, the ACEL fibers exhibit additionally excellent flexibility and mechanical stability, being capable to maintain approximate to 91% of luminance after 500 bending-recovery cycles, as well as mitigated luminance degradation after continuous work in ambient. The proper length combined with superb mechanical properties makes the ACEL fibers readily weavable. Most notably, the isolating, hydrophobic, and biocompatible silicone encapsulation layer endows the ACEL fibers unprecedented wearability. Eventually, a proof-of-concept ACEL fabric is demonstrated by weaving the as-prepared long ACEL fibers, to show the future perspective of directly weaving ACEL fibers into densely arrayed wearable functional cloths.