Direct Single-Step Printing of Conductive Grids on Curved Surfaces Using Template-Guided Foaming

Abstract

Advanced transparent conductors have been studied intensively in the aspects of materials, structures, and printing methods. The material and structural advancements have been successfully accomplished with various conductive nanomaterials and spring-like structures for better electrical conductivity and high mechanical flexibility of the transparent conductors. However, the capability to print submicrometer conductive patterns directly and conformally on curved surfaces with low processing cost and high throughput remains a technological challenge to achieve, primarily because of the original two-dimensional (2D) nature of conventional lithography processes. In our study, we exploit a liquid-mediated patterning approach in the development of flexible templates, enabling printing of curvilinear silver grids in a single-step and strain-free manner at a submicrometer resolution within several minutes with minimum loss of noble metals. The template can guide arrays of receding liquid-air interfaces on curved substrates during liquid evaporation, thereby generating ordered 2D foam structures that can confine and assemble silver nanoparticles in grid patterns. The printed silver grids exhibit suitable optical, electrical, and Joule-heating performances, enabling their application in transparent heaters. Our technique has the potential to extend the existing 2D micro/nanofluidic liquid-mediated patterning approach to three-dimensional (3D) control of liquid-air interfaces for low-cost all-liquid-processed functional 3D optoelectronics in the future.