ABSTRACT In the near future, scientists and researchers hope to use semiconducting materials in various human-friendly electronic devices such as skin-like sensors and interactive

electronics, which require them to function properly while being bent, stretched or twisted. In this work, we managed to achieve excellent mechanical flexibility in conventionally fragile

ceramics with a design of nanobelt network. We engineered inorganic oxides into ultralong and continuous nanobelts via an extremely simple and scalable electrospinning process. The

as-synthesized SnO2 nanobelts possess ultrahigh aspect ratios (>105) and well-defined rectangular cross-section, which exhibit outstanding mechanical flexibility under a bending radius

substrates, including plastics, paper, textiles and curved/bio-surfaces. These results strongly indicate the great compatibility and potential of inorganic nanobelt networks as flexible and

transparent functional electronics. SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS A MOLECULAR DESIGN APPROACH TOWARDS ELASTIC AND MULTIFUNCTIONAL POLYMER ELECTRONICS Article Open access 29

September 2021 INK FORMULATION OF FUNCTIONAL NANOWIRES WITH HYPERBRANCHED STABILIZERS FOR VERSATILE PRINTING OF FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS Article Open access 16 March 2025 BIOMIMETIC FREESTANDING

MICROFRACTALS FOR FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS Article Open access 14 February 2025 INTRODUCTION Inorganic semiconductors have been employed as key components in a wide range of areas, such as

field effect transistors,1 light emitting diodes,2, 3, 4 sensors5, 6 and piezoelectric elements.7 However, their applications in flexible electronics are severely confined due to the

brittleness. In this regard, intensive studies have been conducted on exploiting advanced fabrication techniques and materials suitable for soft electronics. Materials with improved

mechanical flexibility have been reported, such as two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators8 and graphene films,9 one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures10 and carbon nanotubes11 and

zero-dimensional (0D) chalcogenide nanocrystals.12, 13 Rogers’ group has pioneered epidermal electronics with controlled geometrical and spatial configurations in design of flexible

electronics.14, 15, 16 Hosono and co-workers demonstrated a class of amorphous oxide semiconductor films as transparent flexible transistors.17 Despite the enormous progress achieved so far,

it still remains a great challenge to produce inorganic semiconductors with extreme deformability in a scalable way. Moreover, efficient integration of these materials with improved

mechanical flexibility into flexible functional devices, especially on substrates with different textures and complex curvilinear surfaces, is far from well developed. SnO2, as an important

wide-bandgap semiconductor, has been widely explored as gas sensors18, 19 and solar-blind UV detectors,20, 21 whereas further applications in flexible electronics have been rarely reported

due to its poor mechanical properties. One solution is to synthesize and incorporate micro/nano-structures, such as wires, ribbons and bars, which can tolerate mechanical deformation to a

certain extent.22 However, some limitations, such as non-uniformity with low aspect ratios, unstable cross-junctions with high resistance and sophisticated assembly setups, are still

standing in the way of achieving sufficient and durable flexibility in practical applications. Accordingly, new strategies need to be developed, which should meet the requirements of

controlled synthesis of highly uniform nanostructures with tailored geometry, reliable interconnection with low junction resistance and facile integration with multiple flexible or curved

substrates. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES SAMPLE PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION SnO2 nanobelts were synthesized via a combination of sol-gel-based electrospinning and subsequent heat treatment.

The precursor solution was prepared by dissolving SnCl4·5H2O (0.1 g) in pure ethanol (3.8 ml), and then mixed with 5.0 wt.% polyvinyl butyral. The mixture solution was stirred till it turned

into a clear sol, and then delivered into a syringe with a stainless steel needle. A voltage of 12 kV was applied to the sol with a high-voltage power supply. Grounded aluminum foil was

placed below the syringe at a distance of 15 cm to collect nonwoven fiber mats. After a period of deposition time, the fiber mats were peeled off as a free-standing film and calcined in air

at 500 °C for 2 h at a heating rate of 5 °C min−1 to form SnO2 nanobelt networks. SnO2 films were prepared on 100-μm-thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using a.c.

magnetosputtering (LJ-SP103C, LJ-UHV Technology Co. Ltd., Taiwan) with a power of 150 W at a pressure of 20 mtorr. The film thickness was ∼100 nm based on calculation. The samples were

characterized with field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM, JSM-7001F, JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), transmission electron microscopy (TEM, JEM-2010, JEOL Ltd.) and X-ray diffraction

(XRD, D/max-2500, Rigaku Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). OPTOELECTRONIC AND OPTICAL TESTS Time-dependent on/off photoresponse was conducted on Keithley 4200-SCS measurement system. Samples were located

on a probe station in a shielded box. The current was monitored while UV light (Philips TUV 8 W, 254 nm) was turned on and off in a time interval of 2 min. The specular transmittance was

measured by using a UV–visible spectrophotometer (TU-1810PC, Purkinje General Corp., Beijing, China). The samples were transferred onto quartz substrates. The transmittance of a plain quartz

substrate was set as baseline. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SNO2 NANOBELTS In this study, we managed to achieve extraordinary flexibility in conventionally

fragile SnO2 by fabricating a network of intertwined SnO2 nanobelts. Electrospinning, as one of the most efficient methods to produce ultralong 1D nanostructures with low cost and high

scalability,23, 24 was employed to synthesize the SnO2 nanobelts. Particularly, the size, morphology, geometry and chemical composition of electrospun nanostructures can be easily tuned by

adjusting the precursor constituents and operating parameters (e.g., applied voltage, working distance and the feeding rate of solution).23 Accordingly, we were able to produce continuous

nanofibers with a tailored ribbon-like shape. Ribbon-like nanostructures with rectangular cross-section could form during electrospinning through rapid solvent evaporation, which may cause a

dry skin on the surface of liquid jet and lead to subsequent nanofiber collapse.23, 25, 26 As shown in Supplementary Figure S1, the as-electrospun composite fibermats consist of continuous

nanobelts with smooth surfaces. Figure 1a shows the SEM images of a typical electrospun web after calcination. We can see that the as-obtained products preserve the highly uniform belt-like

structure with an average width of ∼250 nm and thickness of ∼35 nm (Supplementary Figure S2). XRD pattern (Supplementary Figure S3) shows that all the diffraction peaks can be well indexed

to rutile SnO2 (JCPDS card no. 77-0449). Further analysis with TEM, selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) confirm that the as-synthesized nanobelts are

polycrystalline SnO2 with grains <10 nm (Supplementary Figure S4). MECHANICAL FLEXIBILITY OF SNO2 NANOBELT NETWORK The electropun nanobelt is continuous with length >1 cm

(Supplementary Figure S5), which results in an ultrahigh aspect ratio above 105. Such long nanobelts are likely to form a uniform and closely intertwined network over a large area without

any binder. As shown in the inset of Figure 1b, the free-standing SnO2 nanobelt web (area ∼1 cm × 2 cm) can be easily lifted and folded with forceps. The left SEM image in Figure 1b clearly

shows that the SnO2 nanobelt web can be bent down to a radius <10 μm without any fracture. Further observations on a single nanobelt (right panel of Figure 1b) demonstrate that each

nanobelt can tolerate extreme deformations with _r_ <200 nm (corresponding to a strain >10%), which endows the nanobelt network with superior mechanical flexibility over traditional

materials. Owing to the large aspect ratio, nanoscale ribbon-like geometry and a well-interconnected web configuration, our SnO2 nanobelt network presents remarkable mechanical flexibility

and durability. To examine its mechanical and optoelectronic properties, we transferred a 1 cm × 1 cm SnO2 nanobelt film onto a 100-μm-thick PET substrate. This whole process can be finished

manually under visual observation, which strongly demonstrates its operability and attractive cost-efficiency. A pair of electrodes with a gap distance of 2 mm was prepared on top with

silver paste or sputtered platinum. As shown in Figures 2a and c, the SnO2 nanobelt network can be bent to a radius of 1 mm without any obvious conductance degradation. After 1000 cycles of

bending to a radius of 2 mm, the resistance of nanobelt network increased by only 110% (Figure 2d). In contrast, the electrical resistance of sputtered SnO2 thin film increased sharply by

∼4500% after bending to 1 mm (Figures 2b and c), and ∼2400% after the first 100 cycles of bending to 2 mm (Figure 2d). The notable mechanical durability of SnO2 nanobelt network has also

been proved by monitoring the resistance change during the repeated dynamic bending test (Supplementary Figure S6 and Supplementary Video S1), which displays fully recovered electrical

conductance with consecutive bending cycles. The small temporary increase in resistance is likely due to the increased gap distance upon bending when nanobelts undergo a nanoscale

deformation to relax the applied stress. Whereas the electrical conductance of sputtered SnO2 thin film went through a rapid and irreversible decay after only the first three bending cycles

(Supplementary Figure S6 and Supplementary Video S2), which may result in catastrophic failure in practical application. FLEXIBLE OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES BASED ON SNO2 NANOBELT NETWORK The

as-assembled photodetector based on SnO2 nanobelt network exhibits high-sensitive UV photoresponse with good reversibility and reproducibility, which is believed to arise from the high

surface-area-to-volume ratio and well-confined 1D electron transport channel.27 Since more surface trap states may form due to the large aspect ratio, a prolonged photocarrier lifetime and

thus enhanced photoconduction gain can be achieved.28 The results of bending test show that the nanobelt network can be bent to an extremely small radius (1 mm) and still function well

despite a marginal increase in the electrical resistance (Figure 2e). Besides, the photosensitivity of SnO2 nanobelt photodetector remains above 102 after bending to 1 mm (Supplementary

Figure S7). For comparison, due to the greatly reduced surface area with less carrier traps, the UV photoresponse of sputtered SnO2 thin film shows a much lower sensitivity of ∼10, and the

electrical conduction under both dark and UV illumination decrease abruptly by ∼90% upon bending to 1 mm (Supplementary Figure S8). MECHANISM OF HIGH FLEXIBILITY OF SNO2 NANOBELT NETWORK The

superior mechanical flexibility of nanobelt network can be further confirmed through direct observation on the microstructural change after bending test. As shown in Figure 3a, SnO2

nanobelts remain a well interconnected and continuous network without detectable fracture after bending to 3 mm. In contrast, numerous cracks on different scales appear in the sputtered SnO2

film, along with channeling and debonding (Figure 3b, and Supplementary Figure S9). This would lead to a catastrophic failure as cracks propagate through the whole film. To examine the

mechanical flexibility of nanobelts under extreme deformations, we transferred them onto a piece of aluminum foil and folded it. As shown in Supplementary Figure S10, the nanobelt network

preserves its integrity after unfolding. Only a few broken nanobelts are found along the crease, where the maximum strain occurred. The extraordinary flexibility observed in the SnO2

nanobelt network originates from the unique ribbon-like nanostructure and the well-interconnected web configuration, which enable the network to maintain its structural integrity upon

bending by releasing the applied stress in a nanoscale level. The nanobelt can withstand severe mechanical deformation due to its nanometer rectangular geometry. For a belt with thickness of

_t_, which is bent to a radius of curvature _r_, the peak strain _ɛ_ can be estimated by the following equation:29 As for our SnO2 nanobelt with _t_ ∼35 nm, the bending radius will be <5

 μm in order to create a tensile strain about 0.5%, which is far beyond the requirements for most practical applications, where _r_ ∼1 cm is often sufficient.22 Besides, the contact area

between nanobelts is much larger than that between nanofibers, which may further enhance the cross-junction stability of the intertwined nanobelt network. In the meanwhile, the

polycrystalline nanobelt itself shows good mechanical properties. It is known that nanocrystalline materials usually exhibit a high strength due to the Hall–Petch effect, and grain-boundary

sliding is proposed to be the dominant deformation mechanism at grain sizes <50 nm.30 In our experiment, the average grain size of electrospun SnO2 nanobelts is <10 nm as discussed

earlier. Such nanocrystalline nanobelts with ultrafine grains are supposed to tolerate severe deformation due to the enhanced strength and superplasticity caused by grain-boundary sliding.

SPECULAR TRANSPARENCY AND OPTICAL SIMULATION OF SNO2 NANOBELT NETWORK Optical transparency is another important performance parameter since transparent electronics are playing an

increasingly important role in a wide range of areas, such as transparent displays, invisible sensors and energy conversion/storage field.31, 32, 33 As shown in Figure 4a, over 80% optical

transmittance can be obtained in the SnO2 nanobelt network. Figure 4b presents an example of a highly transparent photodetector made of the SnO2 nanobelt network. The interaction between an

incident light field and the nanobelt can be understood by simulation. As shown in Figures 4c and d, the nanobelt provides excellent light transmission with low scattering and absorption

cross-sections. Particularly, the scattering cross-section is smaller than the geometrical cross-section of the nanobelt due to its sub-wavelength size effect. Figure 4c shows that the

nanobelt has little light absorption in the visible regime. In addition, the scattering cross-section decreases at longer wavelength since the light wavelength becomes larger than the

nanobelt geometrical size, which results in reduced non-resonant sub-wavelength scattering. Note that the transparency of electrospun nanofiber webs can be further improved by reducing the

deposition time as reported in our previous studies,34 while higher mechanical flexibility can also be achieved in the nanobelt network with a smaller thickness due to the relatively low

strain under the same bending radius. Herein, the nanobelt structure offers attractive advantages as flexible optoelectronics. Compared to nanofibers, the nanobelt network is supposed to

have better mechanical flexibility and enhanced photoresponse owing to the tailored rectangular geometry with increased surface area, which demonstrates reliable electrical and

optoelectronic performances under a bending radius down to 1 mm. Therefore, this ceramic nanobelt network holds great potential in highly transparent and flexible electronics. FACILE

ASSEMBLY OF FLEXIBLE OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES ON MULTIPLE SUBSTRATES In combination of the outstanding mechanical flexibility and high optical transparency, we are able to construct a series

of conformable and ‘invisible’ photodetectors. Since the nanobelt network can be manipulated in a macroscopic level as a free-standing web, we can easily transfer them onto different

substrates, including paper, textiles, tree leaves and glass bottles. As shown in Figure 5 and Supplementary Figure S11, the devices formed on these soft or curved substrates can work as

high-performance UV photodetectors, which demonstrate great reliability even after bending to a small radius of 2 mm (the photoresponse performance is influenced by the physical

characteristics of different substrates). CONCLUSION To summarize, we have achieved high mechanical flexibility and optical transparency in inorganic semiconductors with a new nanobelt

network design. Taking advantage of the closely intertwined web configuration as well as the well-tailored ribbon-like geometry, the nanobelt network exhibits remarkable mechanical

flexibility and optical transparency. The free-standing nanobelt network can be easily transferred and integrated into flexible functional electronics in a cost-effective and scalable way,

which enables us to construct conformable and ‘invisible’ UV photodetectors on various flexible and/or curved substrates. Our work presents a new strategy for designing and integrating

multifunctional ceramics with high mechanical flexibility and optical transparency, which holds great potential in soft optoelectronics, such as photovoltaic systems, paper-like electronics

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Basic Research of China (Grant No. 2013CB632702) and NSF of China (Grant No. 51302141). AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine

Processing, School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR, China Siya Huang, Hui Wu, Chunsong Zhao & Wei Pan * Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA Ming Zhou & Zongfu Yu * Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, PR, China Zhichao Ruan Authors * Siya Huang View

author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Hui Wu View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ming Zhou View

author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Chunsong Zhao View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Zongfu

Yu View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Zhichao Ruan View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *

Wei Pan View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Hui Wu or Wei Pan. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING

INTERESTS The authors declare no conflict of interest. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the NPG Asia Materials website SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

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CITE THIS ARTICLE Huang, S., Wu, H., Zhou, M. _et al._ A flexible and transparent ceramic nanobelt network for soft electronics. _NPG Asia Mater_ 6, e86 (2014).

https://doi.org/10.1038/am.2013.83 Download citation * Received: 02 November 2013 * Revised: 13 November 2013 * Accepted: 17 November 2013 * Published: 14 February 2014 * Issue Date:

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nanobelts * tin oxides