Vapor dealloying of ultra-thin films: a promising concept for the fabrication of highly flexible transparent conductive metal nanomesh electrodes
Vapor dealloying of ultra-thin films: a promising concept for the fabrication of highly flexible transparent conductive metal nanomesh electrodes
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DOI：
10.1038/s41528-019-0049-1
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发表时间：
2019-01-01
影响因子：
14.6
通讯作者：
El Mel, Abdel-Aziz
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chauvin, Adrien;Heu, Willigis Txia Cha;El Mel, Abdel-Aziz
柔性电子显示器的蓬勃发展的市场已经促使开发高度柔性的透明导电电极（FTCE）（1-3），其具有替代常规用作光电器件中的透明导电电极的氧化铟锡（ITO）薄膜的能力。铟的高成本和ITO在变形下差的机械稳定性是该研究领域发展的主要驱动力。(4)使用金属纳米网作为FTCE是一个很有前途的概念，具有真实的潜力，可以在光电子器件中取代ITO。然而，允许生产具有竞争性价格和高性能的金属纳米网电极的低成本制造方法的开发仍然是光电子工业的真实的瓶颈。在本文中，我们报告了一种非常容易实现的鲁棒方法，可以以非常低的成本生产具有高性能的高度灵活的金属纳米网电极。该方法基于一种概念，该概念包括使用酸性蒸气而不是文献中常规进行的液相将脱合金过程应用于超薄Au-Cu合金薄膜。使用适当的程序，可以将纳米网转移到任何平面或弯曲的支撑物上，在那里它们可以用作FTCE。作为概念证明，我们证明了使用这种方法，可以很容易地制造转移到聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）薄膜表面的金纳米网电极，具有79%的透射率和低至44 Ω平方（-1）的薄层电阻，同时在严重的机械变形下保持出色的稳定性。通过气相脱合金制备柔性透明金属纳米网本文提出了一种简单的化学气相处理方法，用Au-Cu合金制备高透明柔性导电电极。由法国国家科学研究中心南特大学的Abdel-Aziz El Mel教授领导的科学家团队开发了一种廉价的“蒸汽去合金化”方法来制造柔性透明导电电极。他们发现硝酸蒸气可以逐渐腐蚀超薄Au-Cu合金薄膜，并形成多孔但连续的金属纳米网电极。结果，电极显示出79%的高透射率和44欧姆/平方的低薄层电阻，与传统的氧化铟锡相当。值得注意的是，纳米网电极在6 mm的弯曲半径下通过了10，000次循环的严格机械变形测试。这种方法为制造具有高柔性和可弯曲性的透明导电电极提供了一种很好的替代方案。
The booming market of flexible electronic displays has urged the development of highly flexible transparent conductive electrodes (FTCE)(1-3) with the ability to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films routinely used as transparent conductive electrodes in photoelectronic devices. The high cost of indium and the poor mechanical stability of ITO under deformation are the main driving forces behind the development of this research area.(4) The use of metal nanomeshes as FTCE is a promising concept with a real potential to substitute ITO in photoelectronic devices.(5,6) However, the development of a low-cost fabrication approach allowing producing metal nanomesh electrodes with competitive prices and a high performance remains a real bottleneck for the photoelectronic industry. In this paper, we report on a robust approach very easy to implement allowing producing highly flexible metal nanomesh electrodes with high performance at a very low cost. This approach lies on a concept consisting in applying dealloying process to ultra-thin Au-Cu alloy thin films using acidic vapors instead of a liquid phase as routinely done in the literature. Using an appropriate procedure, the nanomeshes can be transferred to any planar or curved support where they can serve as a FTCE. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that using this approach, one can easily fabricate gold nanomesh electrodes transferred onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film surface with 79% of transmittance and a sheet resistance as low as 44 Omega square (-1) while maintaining exceptional stability under severe mechanical deformations. Flexible transparent metal nanomeshes via vapor dealloyingA simple chemical vapor treatment method has been developed to fabricate highly transparent and flexible conducting electrodes with Au-Cu alloy. A team of scientists led by Prof Abdel-Aziz El Mel from Universite de Nantes, CNRS, France develop a cheap 'vapor de-alloying' approach to make flexible transparent conductive electrodes. They find that the nitric acidic vapor can gradually etch the ultra-thin Au-Cu alloy thin films and form holey yet continuous metal nanomesh electrodes. As a result, the electrodes show high transmittance of 79% and low sheet resistance of 44 ohm per square, comparable to conventional indium tin oxide. Remarkably, the nanomesh electrodes pass stringent mechanical deformation test of 10,000 cycles at a bending radius of 6mm. This approach provides a nice alternative to make transparent conductive electrodes with high flexibility and bendability.