Kim Chungil, Park Jin Ho, Ko Jaehwan, Lee Suwoon, Kwon Ri Gyeong, Lee Subin, Lee Hangil, Kim Jun Young, Song Hyung-Jun
Department of Safety Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology Seoul 01811 Korea
Department of Semiconductor Engineering, Gyeongsang National University Jinju 52828 Korea
RSC Adv. 2023 Jul 10;13(30):20557-20564. doi: 10.1039/d3ra02212a. eCollection 2023 Jul 7.
Low-temperature processed printed silver electrodes pave the way for electrical connections in flexible substrates with reduced energy consumption. Despite their excellent performance and simple process, printed silver electrodes' poor stability limits their applications. This study demonstrates a transparent protective layer without thermal annealing for printed silver electrodes, which maintains its electrical properties for a long period of time. A fluoropolymer, specifically a cyclic transparent optical polymer (CYTOP), was used as a protective layer for silver. The CYTOP is room temperature processable and chemically stable against carboxyl acid. The introduction of the CYTOP film on the printed silver electrodes mitigates the chemical reaction between silver and carboxyl acid, thereby elongating its lifetime. Under heated acetic acid, the printed silver electrodes with a CYTOP protective layer maintained their initial resistance for up to 300 hours, while the electrodes without a protective layer were damaged within a few hours. A microscopic image shows that the protective layer enables printed electrodes to maintain their shape without damage. Hence, the protective layer guarantees the accurate and reliable performance of electronic devices with printed electrodes under actual operating conditions. This research will contribute to designing chemically reliable flexible devices in the near future.
低温处理的印刷银电极可为柔性基板中的电气连接开辟道路，同时降低能耗。尽管印刷银电极性能优异且工艺简单，但其稳定性较差限制了其应用。本研究展示了一种用于印刷银电极的无需热退火的透明保护层，该保护层能长时间保持其电学性能。一种含氟聚合物，具体为环状透明光学聚合物（CYTOP），被用作银的保护层。CYTOP可在室温下加工，且对羧酸具有化学稳定性。在印刷银电极上引入CYTOP薄膜可减轻银与羧酸之间的化学反应，从而延长其寿命。在加热的乙酸环境下，带有CYTOP保护层的印刷银电极在长达300小时内保持其初始电阻，而没有保护层的电极在几小时内就会受损。微观图像显示，该保护层能使印刷电极保持其形状而不被损坏。因此，该保护层保证了带有印刷电极的电子器件在实际工作条件下能准确可靠地运行。这项研究将有助于在不久的将来设计出化学性能可靠的柔性器件。
