Ink-jet printed transparent and flexible electrodes based on silver nanoparticles

In recent, silver (Ag) nanowires (NWs) have received much attention as an alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) for transparent electrode application in printed and transparent electronics. However, Ag NWs have its breakup problem by joule heating during current. To overcome this problem, this paper demonstrates a mesh type electrode based on Ag nanoparticles, which is fabricated on PET substrate through an ink-jet printing technique. The proposed electrode has a low resistance of 108.5 Ω/sq and a good optical transparency around 92% at 300–800 nm. It has a relationship that the sheet resistance drops with the decrease of transparency due to depending hole size and the best curing temperature is found to be 120 °C. It also demonstrate an excellent flexible stability, showing < 2% resistance change after over 100 bending cycles. These resistance and transparency are similar with that of commercially ITO electrode, and are superior to other alternatives such as carbon nanotube electrodes. The proposed electrode can be considered as a commercial electrode to as an alternative to ITO electrode.