Construction of silver nanochains on DNA template for flexible electrical conductive composites

A facile synthesis of silver nanochains was represented by directly reducing the silver ions adsorbed on the DNA chains. The synthesized silver nanochains consist of spherical nanoparticles (10-20 nm) connected together in line. Then the flexible electrical conductive composites were fabricated for the first time by incorporating Ag nanochains and Ag-coated Cu flakes in polymer matrix. The silver nanochains play important roles of flexible and conductive bridges to construct effective electronic networks among the fillers. The composites filled with small amount of AgNPs shows a much lower volume resistivity of 2.13×10-4 Ω cm, and the resistance change (R/R0) was only 3.65 when rolling at 4 mm, while that of controlled sample reached to 8.89. This method provides a new perspective for researchers to further explore other chain-like metal and their applications in flexible electrical conductive materials.