Fine printing method of silver nanowire electrodes with alignment and accumulation
article
One-dimensional metal nanowires offer great potential in printing transparent electrodes for next-generation optoelectronic devices such as flexible displays and flexible solar cells. Printing fine patterns of metal nanowires with widths <100 ?m is critical for their practical use in the devices. However, the fine printing of metal nanowires onto polymer substrates remains a major challenge owing to their unintended alignment. This paper reports on a fine-printing method for transparent silver nanowires (AgNWs) electrodes miniaturized to a width of 50 ?m on ultrathin (1 ?m) polymer substrate, giving a high yield of >90%. In this method, the AgNW dispersion, which is swept by a glass rod, is spontaneously deposited to the hydrophilic areas patterned on a hydrophobic-coated substrate. The alignment and accumulation of AgNWs at the pattern periphery are enhanced by employing a high sweeping rate of >3.2 mm s-1, improving electrical conductivity and pattern definition. The more aligned and more accumulated AgNWs lower the sheet resistance by a factor of up to 6.8. In addition, a high pattern accuracy ?3.6 ?m, which is the deviation from the pattern designs, is achieved. Quantitative analyses are implemented on the nanowire alignment to understand the nanowire geometry. This fine-printing method of the AgNW electrodes will provide great opportunities for realizing flexible and high-performance optoelectronic devices.
TNO Identifier
868487
ISSN
0957-4484
Source
Nanotechnology, 30(37)
Publisher
Institute of Physics Publishing
Article nr.
37LT03
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