Synthesis of indium nanoclusters and formation of thin film contacts on plastic substratesfor organic and flexible electronics applications

Abstract

In this work, we described the processes of synthesizing free-standing indium nanoclustersusing inverse micelles and microemulsions as well as synthesizing organic-encapsulatedindium nanoclusters using alkanethiols as the organic encapsulants. The synthesizedorganic-encapsulated indium nanoclusters have demonstrated the feasibilities to beused as plastic compatible soft metal contacts for emerging organic devices. Thehomogeneously distributed indium nanoclusters with sizes of 10–30 nm have beenfabricated on a few different plastic substrates. By changing the alkanethiol carbonchain length and the sizes of the indium nanoclusters, the annealing temperaturerequired to form low-resistance indium thin film conductors has been reduced to80–100 °C, which is acceptable for a variety of organic thin films.