Bio‐Based Transparent Conductive Film Consisting of Polyethylene Furanoate and Silver Nanowires for Flexible Optoelectronic Devices

• Published in: Macromolecular rapid communications. Vol. 39; no. 13; pp. e1800271 - n/a
• Main Authors: Lam, Jeun‐Yan, Shih, Chien‐Chung, Lee, Wen‐Ya, Chueh, Chu‐Chen, Jang, Guang‐Way, Huang, Cheng‐Jyun, Tung, Shih‐Huang, Chen, Wen‐Chang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Adhesive strength; Biomass; bio‐based materials; conductive films; Conductivity; Durability; Energy conversion efficiency; Environmental protection; flexible electronic devices; Nanotechnology; Nanowires; Optoelectronic devices; Photovoltaics; Polyester resins; Polyesters; Polyethylene; polyethylene furanoate (PEF); Polyethylene terephthalate; Protective coatings; Silver; silver nanowires (AgNWs); Substrates; Thermal properties; Thermodynamic properties; Transparency; conductive films; silver nanowires (AgNWs); bio-based materials; flexible electronic devices; polyethylene furanoate (PEF)
• ISSN: 1022-1336; 1521-3927
• DOI: 10.1002/marc.201800271

Exploiting biomass has raised great interest as an alternative to the fossil resources for environmental protection. In this respect, polyethylene furanoate (PEF), one of the bio‐based polyesters, thus reveals a great potential to replace the commonly used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) on account of its better mechanical, gas barrier, and thermal properties. Herein, a bio‐based, flexible, conductive film is successfully developed by coupling a PEF plastic substrate with silver nanowires (Ag NWs). Besides the appealing advantage of renewable biomass, PEF also exhibits a good transparency around 90% in the visible wavelength range, and its constituent polar furan moiety is revealed to enable an intense interaction with Ag NWs to largely enhance the adhesion of Ag NWs grown above, as exemplified by the superior bending and peeling durability than the currently prevailing PET substrate. Finally, the efficiency of conductive PEF/Ag NWs film in fabricating efficient flexible organic thin‐film transistor and organic photovoltaic (OPV) is demonstrated. The OPV device achieves a power conversion efficiency of 6.7%, which is superior to the device based on ITO/PEN device, manifesting the promising merit of the bio‐based PEF for flexible electronic applications. Bio‐based, highly transparent, and conductive film based on renewable polyethylene furanoate and silver nanowires is developed as an alternative for petrochemical‐derived polyethylene terephthalate‐based electrodes. The effectiveness of this conductive film for flexible electronic applications is confirmed by the realization of its derived flexible thin‐film transistor and organic photovoltaic devices.