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Updated: Feb 22, 2026
Scalable Solution-processed Fabrication Strategy for High-performance, Flexible, Transparent Electrodes with Embedded Metal Mesh
Published on: June 23, 2017
Embedded Ag/Ni Metal-Mesh with Low Surface Roughness As Transparent Conductive Electrode for Optoelectronic
Xiaolian Chen1,2, Wenrui Guo1, Liming Xie1
1Printable Electronics Research Centre, Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Metal-mesh is one of the contenders to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) as transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) for optoelectronic applications. However, considerable surface roughness accompanying metal-mesh type of transparent electrodes has been the root cause of electrical short-circuiting for optoelectronic devices, such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and organic photovoltaic (OPV). In this work, a novel approach to making metal-mesh TCE has been proposed that is based on hybrid printing of silver (Ag) nanoparticle ink and electroplating of nickel (Ni). By polishing back the electroplated Ni, an extremely smooth surface was achieved. The fabricated Ag/Ni metal-mesh TCE has a surface roughness of 0.17 nm, a low sheet resistance of 2.1 Ω/□, and a high transmittance of 88.6%. The figure of merit is 1450, which is 30 times better than ITO. In addition, the Ag/Ni metal-mesh TCE shows outstanding mechanical flexibility and environmental stability at high temperature and humidity. Using the polished Ag/Ni metal-mesh TCE, a flexible quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) was fabricated with an efficiency of 10.4 cd/A and 3.2 lm/W at 1000 cd/m2.
