Compression and tension bending fatigue behavior of Ag nanowire network

Fatigue behavior of Ag nanowire network subjected to different degrees of compressive bending strain was investigated and compared against the results from tensile bending strain. Ag nanowire network under compression showed excellent reliability showing only a 6.0% increase in fractional resistance at 400,000 cycles, which is superior in comparison to that under tensile strain. The Ag nanowire network under compression was shown to cause buckling of the Ag nanowires, which then relaxed the elastic strain imposed on the Ag nanowire that led to enhanced reliability. The buckled nanowire, however, can cause strain localization especially with small radius of bending, thus causing the failure to occur within the length of individual nanowires unlike in the case of nanowire network under tensile strain that was shown to fail at the junctions with high stress concentrations.