Direct Fabrication of Flexible Ni Microgrid Transparent Conducting Electrodes via Electroplated Metal Transfer

Abstract

A cost-effective process is reported for fabricating flexible transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) through the use of a reusable silicon master mold with a microgrid patterned Ag/Cr-metal double layer. Flexible TCEs can be simply produced via metal electroplating on the master mold followed by metal transfer onto a flexible polymer substrate. Nickel (Ni), an inexpensive metal, is used as the TCE material in this study, allowing low-cost TCE fabrication. The fabricated flexible Ni TCEs exhibit excellent optical and electrical properties (sheet resistance of 6.1 Omega sq(-1) with 96% transmittance) along with outstanding mechanical flexibility with no significant change in sheet resistance after 1000 bending cycles at a bending radius of 4 mm. A touch screen panel is also successfully demonstrated using an Ni microgrid TCE to confirm the practical applicability of these TCEs. The results indicate that the proposed flexible Ni microgrid TCEs have potential for rapid commercialization because of their high optoelectronic performance, low cost, and facile fabrication process.