Li Zeping, Wang Geng, Li Zhongming, Cheng Zhengze, Zhou Guopeng, Li Shan
School of Electronic Information and Engineering, Hubei University of Science and Technology, Xianning, 437005, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
School of Petrochemical Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
Nanoscale Res Lett. 2019 Apr 16;14(1):132. doi: 10.1186/s11671-019-2973-3.
The transmittance, conductivity, and flexibility are the crucial properties for the development of next-generation flexible electrodes. Achieving a good trade-off between transmittance and conductivity of flexible electrodes has been a challenge because the two properties are inversely proportional. Herein, we reveal a good trade-off between transmittance and conductivity of gold nanomesh (AuNM) can be achieved through appropriately increasing the AuNM thickness no more than 40 nm, the mean free path of electrons in Au metal. The further flexibility investigation indicates that the AuNM electrodes with mesh structure show higher tolerance than the Au bulk film, and the AuNM electrodes with smaller inter-aperture wire width can accommodate more tensile strains than a counterpart with bigger inter-aperture wire width. The simulated results based on finite element analysis (FEA) show good agreement with experimental results, which indicates the fabrication method of versatile nanosphere lithography (NSL) is reliable. These results established a promising approach toward next-generation large-scale flexible transparent AuNM electrodes for flexible electronics.
透光率、电导率和柔韧性是下一代柔性电极发展的关键特性。在柔性电极的透光率和电导率之间实现良好的权衡一直是一个挑战，因为这两个特性成反比。在此，我们揭示了通过适当增加金纳米网（AuNM）的厚度（不超过40nm，即金金属中电子的平均自由程），可以在AuNM的透光率和电导率之间实现良好的权衡。进一步的柔韧性研究表明，具有网状结构的AuNM电极比金块体膜表现出更高的耐受性，并且具有较小孔径间线宽的AuNM电极比具有较大孔径间线宽的对应物能够承受更多的拉伸应变。基于有限元分析（FEA）的模拟结果与实验结果显示出良好的一致性，这表明通用纳米球光刻（NSL）的制造方法是可靠的。这些结果为用于柔性电子器件的下一代大规模柔性透明AuNM电极建立了一种有前景的方法。
