Light sintering of ultra-smooth and robust silver nanowire networks embedded in poly(vinyl-butyral) for flexible OLED

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 14170 - 9
• Main Authors: Lee, Dong Jun, Oh, Youngsu, Hong, Jae-Min, Park, Young Wook, Ju, Byeong-Kwon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 21.09.2018; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/624/399/1016; 639/925/357/1016; Embedding; Flexible OLED; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; Intense Pulsed Light (IPL); Mirrors; multidisciplinary; Nanotechnology; Organic Light-emitting Diodes (OLEDs); Polymers; Pressure; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sheet Resistance; Silver; Silver Nanowires; Organic Light-emitting Diodes (OLEDs); Silver Nanowires; Sheet Resistance; Flexible OLED; Intense Pulsed Light (IPL)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32590-0

A conductive, uniform, and ultra-smooth flexible transparent composite film is produced by embedding silver nanowires (AgNWs) into poly(vinyl-butyral) (PVB) without pressure or high-temperature annealing. The adhesion of AgNWs was greatly improved by embedding them in PVB, and surface roughness and sheet resistance (R s ) improvements were achieved through the use of the intense pulsed light (IPL) method, which welds the interconnections among AgNWs in a short time without heat or pressure treatment. The sheet resistance of PVB/AgNWs with the IPL(PAI) composite film reaches 12.6 ohm/sq with a transmittance of 85.7% (at 550 nm); no clear changes in the sheet resistance are observed after a substrate bending and tape test, suggesting excellent flexibility. In the case of PAI, the change in sheet resistance was only 2.6% after a 2,000-bend test, and the resulting bending radius was less than 1 mm. When IPL was exposed to PVB/AgNWs, the figure of merit was 2.36 times higher than that without exposure. Finally, flexible OLEDs using PAI exhibited comparable or higher electroluminescent characteristics than other devices with well-known flexible electrodes—including indium-zinc-oxide on polymer plastic—which is a promising discovery for flexible optoelectronic applications.