Highly conductive and transparent Ag honeycomb mesh fabricated using a monolayer of polystyrene spheres

Kwon, Na Young; Kim, Kyohyeok; Sung, Sihyun; Yi, Insook; Chung, Ilsub

doi:10.1088/0957-4484/24/23/235205

Cited by 40 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Recently, uniform metal mesh structures prepared with nano-patterning lithography techniques such as photolithography, 29 nano-imprint lithography, [30][31][32] grain boundary lithography, 33 colloid sphere lithography, 34,35 AAO template lithography, 36 and electroplating lithography 37 have also attracted great interest as another alternative to ITO because their optical transmittance and electrical conductivity can easily be tuned by controlling the line width, line pitch, and film thickness. However, these approaches produce classical two-dimensional metal mesh structures with the typical trade-off between optical transmittance and electrical conductivity: wider and denser structures have high electrical conductivity, but at the price of reduced optical transmittance and vice versa.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A three-dimensional metal grid mesh as a practical alternative to ITO

et al. 2016

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The development of a practical alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) is one of the most important issues in flexible optoelectronics. In spite of recent progress in this field, existing approaches to prepare transparent electrodes do not satisfy all of their essential requirements. Here, we present a new substrate-embedded tall (∼350 nm) and thin (∼30 nm) three-dimensional (3D) metal grid mesh structure with a large area, which is prepared via secondary sputtering. This structure satisfies most of the essential requirements of transparent electrodes for practical applications in future opto-electronics: excellent optoelectronic performance (a sheet resistance of 9.8 Ω□(-1) with a transmittance of 85.2%), high stretchability (no significant change in resistance for applied strains <15%), a sub-micrometer mesh period, a flat surface (a root mean square roughness of approximately 5 nm), no haze (approximately 0.5%), and strong adhesion to polymer substrates (it survives attempted detachment with 3M Scotch tape). Such outstanding properties are attributed to the unique substrate-embedded 3D structure of the electrode, which can be obtained with a high aspect ratio and in high resolution over large areas with a simple process. As a demonstration of its suitability for practical applications, our transparent electrode was successfully tested in a flexible touch screen panel. We believe that our approach opens up new practical applications in wearable electronics.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A three-dimensional metal grid mesh as a practical alternative to ITO

et al. 2016

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“…[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] The performance of these materials for applications as TCEs is strongly affected by two parameters: optical transmittance and electrical conductivity. However, achieving high conductivity and high optical transmittance has been a challenge because these two properties are usually inversely proportional, and this oen results in optoelectronic performance characteristics far inferior to those of the ITO.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Data points are references respectively for graphene, 12-17 PEDOT:PSS,[18][19][20][21][22] Ag NWs, 23-28 and metal mesh[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] from the lowest to the highest. (b) Specular transmittance spectra for ITO/PES, and different line spacings of Ag nanomesh electrodes.…”

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confidence: 99%

ITO-free highly bendable and efficient organic solar cells with Ag nanomesh/ZnO hybrid electrodes

Song

Kim

et al. 2015

J. Mater. Chem. A

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We demonstrate a facile approach to fabricate Ag nanomesh transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) on a flexible substrate using nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and transfer printing without a conducting polymer. The Ag nanomesh TCEs exhibited a high transmittance of $88% and a low sheet resistance of $15 U sq À1 as well as superior mechanical flexibility. Furthermore, flexible inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs) with Ag nanomesh TCEs exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of $7.15% under 100 mW cm À2 AM 1.5G illumination as well as superior long-term stability under ambient conditions. This type of highly flexible and transparent Ag nanomesh electrode is a promising candidate for use with TCEs in various optoelectronic devices.Organic solar cells (OSCs) have attracted signicant interest because of their great potential to become a green energy source with a large-area, light-weight, mechanical exibility, and low cost processes by roll-to-roll manufacturing. 1-3 Recently, there have been extensive investigations of inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs) with an inverted structure, using modied indium tin oxide (ITO) as the cathode (the ITO is modied by an n-type metal oxide, a conjugated polyelectrolyte, and a self-assembled monolayer). 4,5 Compared with conventional OSCs (COSCs), the IOSCs demonstrate better long-term air stability by avoiding the need for a corrosive and hygroscopic hole transport layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), and a low work function metal cathode, both of which are detrimental to the device lifetime. 4,5 Furthermore, IOSCs can also offer vertical phase separation and concentration gradient in the photoactive layer, which is naturally selfencapsulated because air stable metals are used as the top electrode. 6-9 Indium tin oxide (ITO), which is commonly used as a transparent conductive electrode (TCE), is not suitable as a transparent electrode for exible devices because it is brittle and cracks easily under mechanical stress. 8 Moreover, owing to the rapid depletion of elemental indium and the costs associated with the various vacuum deposition techniques used to produce ITO, its continued use is proving to be expensive. This, in turn, is signicantly hindering the realization of low-cost and easy-to-fabricate exible optoelectronic devices.These key issues in the use of ITO are being addressed by the emergence of next-generation exible transparent materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), 9-11 graphene, 12-17 conducting PEDOT:PSS, 18-22 silver nanowires (Ag NWs), 23-28 and metal meshes. 29-37 The performance of these materials for applications as TCEs is strongly affected by two parameters: optical transmittance and electrical conductivity. However, achieving high conductivity and high optical transmittance has been a challenge because these two properties are usually inversely proportional, and this oen results in optoelectronic performance characteristics far inferior to those of the ITO.Recently, CNTs have been extensively investig...

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“…As a result, metal nanowires [4,5], conducting polymers [6,7], carbon nanotube networks [8,9], graphene films [10], hybrid thin films [11][12][13][14][15], and metal meshes [16][17][18][19][20][21] have emerged as possible candidates. Among them, metal meshes appear to be promising TCF candidates due to their low sheet resistance and high feasibility of mass production using the roll-to-roll printing process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, improvement of metal meshes is still necessary in order to further increase transparency and reduce Moire effects. Additionally, although nanoimprinting methods [16][17][18]22,23] and polystyrene lithography [19][20][21] can fabricate patterns with line-widths below 1 μm, more studies are needed to ensure that mass production of metal meshes for use in TCFs is possible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bulk anodization of Al by using high voltage and polydimethylsiloxane imprinting for transparent conductive films

Sung

Kwon

Heo

et al. 2014

Journal of the Korean Physical Society

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Bulk anodization of Al was successfully carried out at 300 V by controlling the concentrations of phosphoric acid and ethanol used during processing. Optimized anodic aluminum-oxide (AAO) patterns were transferred onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film through an imprinting process. The open ratio of the AAO patterns and the PDMS patterns were examined as a function of the pore widening time. The open ratio of the AAO pattern obtained from a 90-min widening process was 85.8%. PDMS patterns were then obtained by imprinting the aforementioned AAO rolls onto the PDMS surface. The open ratios of the PDMS patterns ranged from 79.6 to 82.7%.

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Highly conductive and transparent Ag honeycomb mesh fabricated using a monolayer of polystyrene spheres

Cited by 40 publications

References 29 publications

A three-dimensional metal grid mesh as a practical alternative to ITO

A three-dimensional metal grid mesh as a practical alternative to ITO

ITO-free highly bendable and efficient organic solar cells with Ag nanomesh/ZnO hybrid electrodes

Bulk anodization of Al by using high voltage and polydimethylsiloxane imprinting for transparent conductive films

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