Abstract
Flexible transparent conductive thin films (TCFs) prepared from Silver nanowires (AgNWs) have attractive features of low cost, flexibility, and solution-processed, but the usual manufacturing methods could still be hard to be scaled up. In addition, large-scale/large-area fabrication process with industrialized potential is strongly needed. In this paper, the flexible TCFs with high stability are obtained via using screen printing method to print the AgNWs inks on a flexible and transparent substrate. The micro-structure of the AgNWs patterns is investigated by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope. Furthermore, the sheet resistance, light transmittance, and film thickness of the AgNWs patterns prepared under different conditions are characterized to explore the influence of different factors on its optical and electrical properties.
Highlights
As generation optoelectronic devices tend towards mobile and wearable devices, flexible electronics became of fundamental importance in the development of efficient and stretchable optoelectronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), touch screens, e-readers, electronic papers, and organic photovoltaics (OPVs) [1,2,3,4,5]
Indium tin oxide (ITO) is currently the material primarily selected for the production of TCFs
The limited reserves of the raw materials and the technique normally employed in the fabrication of ITO film result in increased cost, which hinders the development of the low-cost/large-area fabrication
Summary
As generation optoelectronic devices tend towards mobile and wearable devices, flexible electronics became of fundamental importance in the development of efficient and stretchable optoelectronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), touch screens, e-readers, electronic papers, and organic photovoltaics (OPVs) [1,2,3,4,5]. Silver nanowires were considered to be the best potential alternative to ITO in the generation of flexible TCFs due to their excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, good mechanical stability, acceptable price, and its oxide still has a certain conductivity [9,10,11,12]. Despite great success being realized in the field of flexible screen-printed electronics, few have successfully developed screen-printable inks with high stability and conductivity for wearable electronic applications [26,27,28]. Many eventful challenges still remain in the development of high-quality screen printable inks for TCFs. In this paper, the fabrication of conductive printed patterns of AgNWs on flexible poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) via screen-printing was reported. The effects of the amount of silver nanowires, heat treatment temperature, and bending times on the microstructure, optical and electrical properties of samples were investigated
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