Self-attachable Flexible Transparent Electrodes with Robust Mechanical Adhesion and low Contact Resistance

Abstract

With the recent development of low-dimensional nanomaterials such as nanowires, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene, flexible and transparent conductive electrodes (FTCEs) are being developed. Based on the high mechanical flexibility, optical transparency, and electrical conductivity, FTCEs are key elements of the emerging flexible optoelectronic devices, including flexible displays, touch panels, heaters, solar cells, electronic skins, and smart windows. Such electrodes should form an intimate physical contact with various active components of flexible devices to ensure stable, low-resistant electrical contacts. However, contact formation techniques are based largely on conventional soldering, conductive pastes, mechanical clamping, and thin film deposition. These generally result in damaged, contaminated, bulky, and uncontrollable contact interfaces. Herein, we report a selfattachable, flexible, transparent, and conductive electrode (AF-TCE) that can simultaneously form strong mechanical adhesive contacts and low-resistant electrical contacts with diverse planar and curvilinear surfaces of flexible devices. The AF-TCE has a distinctive design of regular grid patterns into which bioinspired adhesive architectures and percolating Ag nanowires are integrated. Based on the integrated design, the AF-TCE can form low-resistant electrical ohmic contacts and ultra-clean, damage-free contact interfaces with active components of flexible devices by attaching it onto the components even when they are highly bent. Moreover, specific electronic circuits can be formed on the surface of the AF-TCE by depositing Ag nanowires selectively. This enables interconnections among the diverse electronic components on its surface. The advantages of the proposed AF-TCE are demonstrated by utilizing it for flexible electronics.