Abstract
Copper nanowire (CuNW) based flexible transparent electrodes have been extensively investigated due to their outstanding performances and low price. However, commonly used methods for processing CuNW transparent electrodes such as thermal annealing and photonic sintering inevitably damage the flexible substrates leading to low transmittance. Herein, a surface coating layer was demonstrated to protect the heat-sensitive polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymer from being destroyed by the instantaneous high temperature during the photonic sintering process. The stable ceramic surface coating layer avoided the direct exposure of PET to intense light, further reduced the heat releasing to the bottom part of the PET, protecting the flexible PET base from destruction and ensuring high transparency for the CuNW transparent electrodes. A CuNW transparent electrode on surface coated PET (C-PET) substrates with a sheet resistance of 33 Ohm sq−1 and high transmittance of 82% has been successfully fabricated by the photonic sintering method using light intensity of 557 mJ cm−2 within several seconds in ambient conditions. The surface coating layers open a novel method to optimize the rapid photonic sintering technique for processing metal nanomaterials on heat-sensitive substrates.
Highlights
IntroductionAs some of the most exciting and promising information technologies, have opened up new opportunities for prospective applications, such as foldable tablets and phones, bendable photovoltaic cells, bendable light emitting diodes (LEDs), and wearable sensors.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] Numerous efforts have been made to convert electronic components from traditional rigid silicon or printed circuit boards (PCB) onto exible polymers, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or polyimide (PI) or polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).[7,9,10] To be compatible with the exible substrates, the electronic components and packaged circuits have been developed with advanced and functional nanomaterials, which are assembled on bendable or irregular shaped substrates
CuNWs were synthesized by hydrothermal method as our previous papers.[28]
During the photonic sintering process, the upper parts of CuNWs were welded at junctions in air, the bottom parts were embedded in N-polyethylene terephthalate (PET) lm, both of which were due to the thermal effect caused by the intense light
Summary
As some of the most exciting and promising information technologies, have opened up new opportunities for prospective applications, such as foldable tablets and phones, bendable photovoltaic cells, bendable light emitting diodes (LEDs), and wearable sensors.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] Numerous efforts have been made to convert electronic components from traditional rigid silicon or printed circuit boards (PCB) onto exible polymers, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or polyimide (PI) or polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).[7,9,10] To be compatible with the exible substrates, the electronic components and packaged circuits have been developed with advanced and functional nanomaterials, which are assembled on bendable or irregular shaped substrates. The high temperature (>200 C) sintering step would destroy the heat-sensitive substrates, leading to an extreme low transparency for conductive lms, which limits the applications in touch panel or display screen. Some Cu patterns have been achieved with the light sintering on PI substrates because they can endure high temperature, which is necessary for Cu sintering.[30,31] PI substrates are yellowish and opaque below 500 nm wavelength, which limits their widespread applications as transparent devices. Another one is to adopt a multi-step process. The newly prepared CuNWs were dispersed in isopropanol to form Cu ink and stored in fridge before usage
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