AgNW/stereocomplex-type polylactide biodegradable conducting film and its application in flexible electronics

The flourishing development and fast-growing consumption of flexible electronics has brought great pressure to the fragile environment owing to the large amount of plastic waste generated by their non-degradable petroleum-derived polymeric substrates. To alleviate environmental burdens, there’s an urgent need to develop bio-based and biodegradable polymers to replace the petroleum-derived ones used in flexible electronics. In this work, a fully biodegradable polymer, stereocomplex-type polylactide (SC-PLA), together with silver nanowire (AgNW) was exploited to fabricate conductive composite film and the application of this film in flexible electronics was explored. By thermal annealing in the protection of a zinc oxide (ZnO) layer, the AgNW/SC-PLA film with 100% stereocomplex crystallites was obtained. The ZnO/AgNW/SC-PLA film exhibited the sheet resistance of 39.3 Ω/sq with good stability under bending and tape tests. As contrasted with PLA, the film based on SC-PLA presented better mechanical properties and hydrolysis resistance. Specially, a pressure sensor based on the ZnO/AgNW/SC-PLA film was successfully fabricated and it showed considerable flexibility, high sensitivity, and good stability. This work provided an effective way to fabricate biodegradable AgNW/SC-PLA film with high performances and great application potentials, which could help broaden the applications of SC-PLA and develop degradable flexible electronics.