In this work we introduce a thermally and mechanically robust, smooth transparent conductor composed of silver nanowires embedded in a colorless polyimide substrate. The polyimide is exceptionally chemically, mechanically, and thermally stable. While silver nanowire networks tend not to be thermally stable to high temperatures, the addition of a titania coating on the nanowires dramatically increases their thermal stability. This allows for the polyimide to be thermally imidized at 360 °C with the silver nanowires in place, creating a smooth (<1 nm root mean square roughness), conductive surface. These transparent conducting substrate-cum-electrodes exhibit a conductivity ratio figure of merit of 272, significantly outperforming commercially available indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated plastics. We subject the conductive polymide to various mechanical tests and use it as a substrate for a thermally deposited, flexible, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) which shows improved device performance than a control device made on ITO coated glass.
Video above is green OLED on our conductive polyimide operating while being flexed.
Wow!!!
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