Printable and Stretchable Conductive Wirings Comprising Silver Flakes and Elastomers

Smart textiles such as wearable computers and health-care sensors on everyday clothing will be realized likely in the near future. Here, we report that highly electrical conductors were fabricated by filling half of the volume of a polyurethane elastomer with microsized silver flakes under a low temperature of 70
^°
C. Given the high affinity of polyurethane with silver flakes and substrates, high conductivity was maintained on polyurethane substrates stretched up to a strain of 600% and on folded cellulosic substrates. Illumination of a light-emitting diode was also successful with the stretched wirings.