Depth mapping of metallic nanowire polymer nanocomposites by scanning dielectric microscopy

Harishankar Balakrishnan, Ruben Millan-Solsona, Marti Checa, Rene Fabregas, Laura Fumagalli, Gabriel Gomila

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Polymer nanocomposite materials based on metallic nanowires are widely investigated as transparent and flexible electrodes or as stretchable conductors and dielectrics for biosensing. Here we show that Scanning Dielectric Microscopy (SDM) can map the depth distribution of metallic nanowires within the nanocomposites in a non-destructive way. This is achieved by a quantitative analysis of sub-surface electrostatic force microscopy measurements with finite-element numerical calculations. As an application we determined the three-dimensional spatial distribution of ∼50 nm diameter silver nanowires in ∼100 nm-250 nm thick gelatin films. The characterization is done both under dry ambient conditions, where gelatin shows a relatively low dielectric constant, ϵr ∼ 5, and under humid ambient conditions, where its dielectric constant increases up to ϵr ∼ 14. The present results show that SDM can be a valuable non-destructive subsurface characterization technique for nanowire-based nanocomposite materials, which can contribute to the optimization of these materials for applications in fields such as wearable electronics, solar cell technologies or printable electronics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)10116-10126
Number of pages11
JournalNanoscale
Volume13
Issue number22
Early online date12 May 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jun 2021

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