Arbitrary alignment-angle control method of electrospun fibers: potential for a stretchable electrode material

摘要

Uniform and reproducible alignment methods for one-dimensional structures, such as wires, tubes, and fibers are essential for the fabrication of commercial devices. This paper presents an arbitrary alignmentangle control method. The mechanical stretching of arbitrarily aligned fibers can be increased by as much as 120%. Stretchable electrodes that stably maintain their electro-optical properties against large mechanical deformations are essential for the fabrication of wearable electronics. For randomly distributed fibers, fiber-to-fiber contact resistance has a detrimental effect on the carrier transport. The proposed method aligns fibers into a uniform array to reduce the fiber-to-fiber contact resistance between fibers using parallel-aligned bars. The results demonstrate the feasibility of applying the transfer-free alignment method along a specific alignment-angle for fabricating stretchable metal fiber networks. Fibers are aligned directly onto the sample surface by mounting the alignment jig onto the conventional collecting plate. This transfer-free strategy avoids the deformation and overlap of aligned patterns during the conventional transferring process.