Roll-to-Roll Encapsulation of Metal Nanowires between Graphene and Plastic Substrate for High-Performance Flexible Transparent Electrodes

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 15; no. 6; pp. 4206 - 4213
• Main Authors: Deng, Bing, Hsu, Po-Chun, Chen, Guanchu, Chandrashekar, B. N, Liao, Lei, Ayitimuda, Zhawulie, Wu, Jinxiong, Guo, Yunfan, Lin, Li, Zhou, Yu, Aisijiang, Mahaya, Xie, Qin, Cui, Yi, Liu, Zhongfan, Peng, Hailin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 10.06.2015
• Subjects: encapsulation; metal nanowires; Flexible transparent electrode; graphene; roll-to-roll
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b01531

Transparent conductive film on plastic substrate is a critical component in low-cost, flexible, and lightweight optoelectronics. Industrial-scale manufacturing of high-performance transparent conductive flexible plastic is needed to enable wide-ranging applications. Here, we demonstrate a continuous roll-to-roll (R2R) production of transparent conductive flexible plastic based on a metal nanowire network fully encapsulated between graphene monolayer and plastic substrate. Large-area graphene film grown on Cu foil via a R2R chemical vapor deposition process was hot-laminated onto nanowires precoated EVA/PET film, followed by a R2R electrochemical delamination that preserves the Cu foil for reuse. The encapsulated structure minimized the resistance of both wire-to-wire junctions and graphene grain boundaries and strengthened adhesion of nanowires and graphene to plastic substrate, resulting in superior optoelectronic properties (sheet resistance of ∼8 Ω sq–1 at 94% transmittance), remarkable corrosion resistance, and excellent mechanical flexibility. With these advantages, long-cycle life flexible electrochromic devices are demonstrated, showing up to 10000 cycles.