Hybrid
materials are a merger of inorganic and organic materials
and, as such, have the potential to outperform the characteristics
and functionalities of conventional, that is, inorganic or organic
materials. Consequently, various routes for their synthesis are being
explored. However, despite the enormous recent progress in synthetic
strategies, the pool of successfully hybridized materials is still
very limited, thereby lowering their practical applicability since
the functionality of the materials relies on the choice of the organic
and inorganic constituents and their interplay. This work demonstrates
the hybridization of indium oxide with ParyleneC upon vapor phase
infiltration (VPI) of the metal-containing precursor trimethylindium
into the polymer and its reaction with a counter precursor in its
subsurface. We found that the choice of hydrogen peroxide instead
of water vapor as the oxygen source substantially influences the hybrid
material formation, resulting in a hybrid with an increased infiltration
depth down to 300 nm, a narrower band gap, and stable sheet resistance
values over a broad range of infiltration temperatures, from 135 to
210 °C. Electron microscopy and chemical analysis revealed the
formation of indium oxide nanoparticles (NPs) within the ParyleneC
with a capping layer of indium oxide. The flexible hybrid withstands
at least 7000 bending events over a curvature with a radius of 5.5
mm. The redistribution of the NPs inside the polymer matrix upon bending
even leads to a decrease of the electrical sheet resistance, which
makes this flexible conductive hybrid (FCH) material opting for applications
as robust flexible transparent electrodes.