Vacuum-Free Fabrication of Transparent Electrodes for Soft Electronics

Abstract

Optoelectronic devices are advancing from existing rigid configurations to deformable configurations. These developing devices need transparent electrodes (TEs) having high mechanical deformability while preserving the high electrical conductivity and optical transparency. In agreement with these requirements, vacuum-fabricated conventional TEs based on transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are receiving difficulties due to its low abundance, film brittleness, and low optical transmittance. Novel solution-processed TE materials including regular metal meshes, metal nanowire (NW) grids, carbon materials, and conducting polymers have been studied and confirmed their capabilities to address the limitations of the TCO-based TEs. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the latest advances of these vacuum-free TEs, comprising the electrode material classes, the optical, electrical, mechanical and surface feature properties of the soft TEs, and the vacuum-free practices for their fabrication.