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Role of graphene towards long-term stability of flexible heaters made of graphene-coated silver nanowire networks under repeated deformation

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Abstract

The electric heaters used in wearable electronic devices require mechanical and thermal stability against deformation and flexibility. In this study, we fabricated a film heater by coating a flexible substrate with a network of silver nanowires coated with chemical-vapour-deposited graphene (denoted as GPonAgNWs) and observed the effect of the number of graphene layers on the heating performance and stability. As the number of graphene layers increased, the maximum temperature and bending cycles that the GPonAgNW network could withstand increased upon repeated bending deformation. Silver nanowire networks coated with two and four graphene layers could, respectively, withstand temperatures of 58 and 70 °C for 18,000 bending cycles at a strain of 15%, whereas a graphene-free silver nanowire network failed at 51 °C after 180 cycles. Moreover, a real-time analysis during cyclic bending deformation of the silver nanowire network coated with four-layer graphene showed a stable temperature variation within 2 °C despite the doubling of resistance for 180,000 cycles. Structural analysis and Monte Carlo simulation demonstrated that the graphene-induced reduction of the contact resistance between the two nanowires could suppress the hotspots generated at the contact, thereby providing an extended heater lifetime and stable heater performance in the GPonAgNW network. Thus, we suggest that flexible heaters made of GPonAgNW networks, exhibiting high reliability upon repeated deformation, can be used in wearable devices.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgements

The present research was supported by the research fund of Dankook University in 2020.

Funding

The present research was supported by the research fund of Dankook University in 2020. 

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 10540, Republic of Korea

    Jinyoung Hwang & Jungmin Lee

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Dankook University, 119, Dandae-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam, 31116, Republic of Korea

    Seyoung Ryu & Yun Sung Woo

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  1. Jinyoung Hwang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception, design and experiment. YSW conceived the original idea of this study. JH contributed to the study design. SR and JL contributed to sample preparation and overall data collection. JH and JL contributed to the simulation and analysis. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YSW and JH and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yun Sung Woo.

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Hwang, J., Lee, J., Ryu, S. et al. Role of graphene towards long-term stability of flexible heaters made of graphene-coated silver nanowire networks under repeated deformation. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 130 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09539-1

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