Extremely flexible, transparent, and strain-sensitive electroluminescent device based on ZnS:Cu-polyvinyl butyral composite and silver nanowires

A multifunctional alternate current electroluminescent device (ACEL) was achieved by compositing ZnS:Cu particles in polyvinyl butyral (PVB) with two layers of percolated silver nanowire (AgNW) electrodes. The strong hydrogen bonding interactions and entanglement of PVB chains considerably strengthened the PVB, and thus, the cured mixture of ZnS:Cu particles and freestanding PVB required no additional support. The device was fabricated by embedding AgNWs on both sides of the ZnS:Cu-PVB composite film using an inverted layer process and intense-pulsed-light treatment. The strong affinity of PVB to the polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) layer, which capped the AgNWs, mechanically stabilized the device to such an extent that it could resist 10,000 bending cycles under a curvature radius of 500 μm. Using AgNW networks in both the top and bottom electrodes made a double-sided light-emitting device that could be applied to wearable lightings or flexible digital signage. The capacitance formed in the device sensitively varied with the applied bending and unfolding, thus demonstrating that the device can also be used as a deformation sensor.