TY - JOUR
T1 - A Transparent, Smooth, Thermally Robust, Conductive Polyimide for Flexible Electronics
AU - Spechler, Joshua A.
AU - Koh, Tae Wook
AU - Herb, Jake T.
AU - Rand, Barry P.
AU - Arnold, Craig B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/12/22
Y1 - 2015/12/22
N2 - In this work, a thermally and mechanically robust, smooth transparent conductor composed of silver nanowires embedded in a colorless polyimide substrate is introduced. The polyimide is exceptionally chemically, mechanically, and thermally stable. While silver nanowire networks tend not to be thermally stable to high temperatures, the addition of a titania coating on the nanowires dramatically increases their thermal stability. This allows for the polyimide to be thermally imidized at 360 °C with the silver nanowires in place, creating a smooth (<1 nm root mean square roughness), conductive surface. These transparent conducting substrate-cum-electrodes exhibit a conductivity ratio figure of merit of 272, significantly outperforming commercially available indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated plastics. The conductive polymide is subjected to various mechanical tests and is used as a substrate for a thermally deposited, flexible, organic light-emitting diode, which shows improved device performance compared to a control device made on ITO coated glass.
AB - In this work, a thermally and mechanically robust, smooth transparent conductor composed of silver nanowires embedded in a colorless polyimide substrate is introduced. The polyimide is exceptionally chemically, mechanically, and thermally stable. While silver nanowire networks tend not to be thermally stable to high temperatures, the addition of a titania coating on the nanowires dramatically increases their thermal stability. This allows for the polyimide to be thermally imidized at 360 °C with the silver nanowires in place, creating a smooth (<1 nm root mean square roughness), conductive surface. These transparent conducting substrate-cum-electrodes exhibit a conductivity ratio figure of merit of 272, significantly outperforming commercially available indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated plastics. The conductive polymide is subjected to various mechanical tests and is used as a substrate for a thermally deposited, flexible, organic light-emitting diode, which shows improved device performance compared to a control device made on ITO coated glass.
KW - colorless polyimides
KW - flexible electronics
KW - organic light-emitting diodes
KW - silver nanowires
KW - transparent conducting electrodes
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U2 - 10.1002/adfm.201503342
DO - 10.1002/adfm.201503342
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84947758940
SN - 1616-301X
VL - 25
SP - 7428
EP - 7434
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
IS - 48
ER -