Scalable Fabrication of Metallic Nanofiber Network via Templated Electrodeposition for Flexible Electronics

Abstract

Metallic nanofiber networks (MNFNs) are very promising for next-generation flexible transparent electrodes (TEs) since they can retain outstanding optical and electrical properties during bending due to their ultralong and submicron profile. However, it is still challenging to achieve cost-effective and high-throughput fabrication of MNFNs with reliable and consistent performance. Here, a cost-effective method is reported to fabricate high-performance MNFN-TEs via templated electrodeposition and imprint transfer. The fabricated electrodeposition template has a trilayer structure of glass/indium tin oxide/SiO2 with nanotrenches in the insulating SiO2 that can be utilized for repeated electrodeposition of the MNFNs, which are then transferred to flexible substrates. The fabricated TEs exhibit excellent optical transmittance (>84%) and electrical conductivity (<0.9 Ω sq−1) and show desirable mechanical flexibility with a sheet resistance <2 Ω sq−1 under a bending radius of 3 mm. Meanwhile, the MNFN-TEs reproduced from the reusable template show consistent and reliable performance. Additionally, this template-based method can realize the direct patterning of MNFN-TEs with arbitrary conductive patterns by selective masking of the template. As a demonstration, a flexible dynamic electroluminescent display is fabricated using TEs made by this method, and the light-emitting pattern is observable from both sides.