Abstract
Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) have attracted great interest because of their wide range of applications in solar cells, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and touch screen panels (TSPs). Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin films as TCEs possess exceptional optoelectronic properties, but they have several disadvantages such as a brittle nature due to their low fracture strain and lack of flexibility, a high processing temperature that damages the flexible substrates, low adhesion to polymeric materials, and relative rarity on Earth, which makes their price unstable. This has motivated several research studies of late for developing alternative materials to replace ITO such as metal meshes, metal nanowires, conductive polymers, graphene, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Out of the abovementioned candidates, CNTs have advantages in chemical stability, thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and flexibility. However, there are still several problems yet to be solved for achieving CNT-based flexible TCEs with excellent characteristics and high stability. In this chapter, the properties of CNTs and their applications especially for flexible TCEs are presented, including the preparation details of CNTs based on solution processes, the surface modification of flexible substrates, and the various types of hybrid TCEs based on CNTs.
Highlights
Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are thin films of optically transparent and electrically conductive materials
TCEs fabricated by solution processes, which have some advantages such as simple and continuous process and relatively low costs, have attracted enormous interest because of their wide range of applications in flexible devices such as displays, touch screen panels (TSPs), sensors, film heaters that can attach to the skin, fabrics, and papers [1, 2]
The higher ES value was observed for the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate that was [2 + 2]-times treated, compared with the PET substrate that was 4-times treated. These results indicate that the changes in the Figure 6. [(a)–(h)] The liquid drop images pictured from the PET substrates: (a) and (e) for nontreated, (b) and (f) for once corona treated, (c) and (g) for 4-times corona treated, (d) and (h) for [2 + 2]-times corona treated, and (i) the estimated ES along with EP and ED components in terms of the PET feeding directions and the numbers of treatment
Summary
Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are thin films of optically transparent and electrically conductive materials. ITO has disadvantages in the application fields where flexibility is ensured due to its brittle nature because of its low fracture strain and absence of flexibility, a high processing temperature that damages the flexible substrates, low adhesion to polymeric materials, and their relative rarity on Earth, which makes their price unstable [3] This has recently motivated various researches to discover alternative materials to replace ITO films, which include metal meshes, silver nanowires, conductive polymers, graphene, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [4, 5]. The chemical doping technology that lowers the sheet resistance has been introduced [14], but effectively controlling the defects in the CNTs is still difficult As another method of improving the electric characteristics of CNTs, studies on the manufacturing of hybrid-type transparent electrodes have been attempted by several research groups. The hybrid-type TCEs, which are fabricated by coating metal meshes with CNTs, are presented along with their characteristics as flexible TCEs
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