A method for preparing a self-cracking template for transparent metal mesh electrodes

Abstract

This invention discloses a method for preparing a self-cracking template for a transparent metal mesh electrode. First, solvent 1 is used to dissolve or disperse an adhesive layer material to obtain solution 1. Solution 1 is then deposited on a substrate to uniformly adhere the adhesive layer to the substrate surface. Next, solvent 2 is used to dissolve or disperse tannic acid to obtain a tannic acid solution. The tannic acid is the core material for the formation of the self-cracking pattern. After the tannic acid solution dries on the surface of the adhesive layer, a self-cracking pattern is formed. This self-cracking pattern, combined with magnetron sputtering and peeling, can be used to prepare a transparent metal mesh electrode. In this invention, the tannic acid used as the cracking template material is easy to remove and peel off. Combined with the adhesive layer, the cracking pattern can be formed on various substrates, making it suitable for various substrates. The preparation method is simple, allows for large-area preparation, and has wide applicability.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of metal mesh transparent electrode fabrication technology, and in particular to a method for preparing a self-cracking template for metal mesh transparent electrodes. Background Technology

[0002] Transparent electrodes, characterized by their transparency and conductivity, are an important component of photoelectric conversion devices. They have found wide applications in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, touchscreens, and smart glass. Commercially available transparent electrodes are made of indium tin oxide (ITO), which exhibits excellent photoelectric properties, with a sheet resistance (Rs) of 15 Ω / sq at 90% transmittance (T). However, ITO is brittle, not resistant to bending, and has a high cost, limiting its application in flexible devices.

[0003] Metal mesh transparent electrodes (MMTEs) are a new generation of transparent electrode materials. They possess the excellent conductivity of metals and their transmittance can be adjusted by changing the porosity. Silver and copper have the highest and second-highest conductivity among metals and are commonly used as MMTE materials. Metal meshes formed by wire spin coating or spraying suffer from large surface roughness and poor wire contact, often requiring additional welding operations. Mesh patterns or mesh groove patterns can be used to obtain mesh metal wires on the same plane. These transparent electrodes have small surface roughness and good contact between metal wires, thus showing broad application prospects. Mesh patterns can be formed by removing the unmasked portions using wet or dry etching (ACS Nano, 2014, 4782 and ACS Nano, 2015, 9, 2502). Among the strategies for preparing metal meshes using mesh patterns, wet etching is suitable for a limited range of metals, while dry etching is more expensive. Metal mesh transparent electrodes can also be obtained by combining mesh grooves with metallization (such as physical vapor deposition and magnetron sputtering) and lift-off processes. Its advantage is that it can fabricate metal wires with relatively high heights, and the type of metal is virtually unlimited. In existing research, the materials used as templates for mesh grooves mainly include egg white and nail polish (the main component of which is polyacrylate polymer, Advanced Materials Technologies, 2016, 1, 1600095). Summary of the Invention

[0004] The purpose of this invention is to solve the technical problems existing in the prior art and to provide a method for preparing a self-cracking template for a metal mesh transparent electrode.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, the technical solution provided by this invention is as follows: using tannic acid as the cracking material, a method for preparing a self-cracking template for a metal mesh transparent electrode is designed; firstly, solvent 1 is used to dissolve or disperse the adhesive layer material to obtain solution 1; solution 1 is used to form a film on a substrate so that the adhesive layer is uniformly attached to the substrate surface; then, solvent 2 is used to dissolve or disperse tannic acid to obtain a tannic acid solution; the tannic acid is the core material for the formation of the self-cracking pattern, and the tannic acid solution forms a self-cracking pattern after drying on the surface of the adhesive layer. The self-cracking pattern, combined with magnetron sputtering and stripping, can be used to prepare a metal mesh transparent electrode.

[0006] Preferably, the substrate is one of glass, polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, and polyethylene naphthalate.

[0007] Preferably, solvent 1 and solvent 2 are both selected from water, ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide and chloroform.

[0008] Preferably, the adhesive layer material is one of konjac gum, gum arabic, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylonitrile, polyvinyl butyral, polystyrene, and polymethyl methacrylate.

[0009] Beneficial effects of this invention:

[0010] 1. The tannic acid used as the crack template material in this invention is easy to remove and peel off, the preparation method is simple, and it can be prepared on a large area; moreover, the tannic acid combined with the adhesive layer allows the crack pattern to be formed on a variety of substrates, including rigid and flexible substrates, and can be used to prepare flexible transparent electrodes, thus having wide applicability. Attached Figure Description

[0011] The accompanying drawings, which are provided to further illustrate the invention and constitute a part of this invention, are illustrative embodiments of the invention and their descriptions are used to explain the invention and do not constitute an undue limitation of the invention.

[0012] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram illustrating the implementation steps of the present invention;

[0013] Figure 2 This is a scanning electron microscope image of the self-cracked template described in this invention;

[0014] Figure 3 This is a scanning electron microscope image of a transparent metal mesh electrode obtained by magnetron sputtering and peeling using the self-cracked template described in this invention. Detailed Implementation

[0015] This section will describe in detail specific embodiments of the present invention. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings. The purpose of the drawings is to supplement the textual description with graphics, so that people can intuitively and vividly understand each technical feature and overall technical solution of the present invention, but they should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0016] In the description of this invention, "several" means one or more, "more than" means two or more, "greater than," "less than," and "exceeding" are understood to exclude the stated number, while "above," "below," and "within" are understood to include the stated number. The use of "first" and "second" in the description is merely for distinguishing technical features and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance, or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features, or implicitly indicating the order of the indicated technical features.

[0017] In the description of this invention, unless otherwise explicitly defined, terms such as "set up," "install," and "connect" should be interpreted broadly, and those skilled in the art can reasonably determine the specific meaning of the above terms in this invention in conjunction with the specific content of the technical solution.

[0018] Reference Figures 1-3 ,in Figure 1 This paper illustrates a method for preparing a self-cracked template for a transparent metal mesh electrode. Specifically, firstly, solvent 1 is used to dissolve or disperse the adhesive layer material to obtain solution 1; solution 1 is used to form a film on a substrate to uniformly attach the adhesive layer to the substrate surface; then, solvent 2 is used to dissolve or disperse tannic acid to obtain a tannic acid solution; the tannic acid is the core material for the formation of the self-cracked pattern, and the tannic acid solution forms a self-cracked pattern after drying on the surface of the adhesive layer. The self-cracked pattern, combined with magnetron sputtering and exfoliation, can be used to prepare a transparent metal mesh electrode.

[0019] The tannic acid used as the cracking template material in this invention is easy to remove and peel off, and the preparation method is simple, allowing for large-area preparation. The tannic acid combined with the adhesive layer enables the cracking pattern to be formed on various substrates, including rigid and flexible substrates. It can be used to prepare flexible transparent electrodes, exhibiting wide applicability.

[0020] As a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it may also have the following additional technical features:

[0021] In this embodiment, the substrate is one of glass, polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, and polyethylene naphthalate.

[0022] In this embodiment, solvent 1 and solvent 2 are both one of water, ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide and chloroform.

[0023] In this embodiment, the adhesive layer material is one of konjac gum, gum arabic, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylonitrile, polyvinyl butyral, polystyrene, and polymethyl methacrylate.

[0024] Example 1

[0025] 0.02 g of polyvinyl alcohol was dissolved in 1 mL of water. The polyvinyl alcohol solution was spin-coated onto a glass slide to form a film and then dried. 0.2 g of tannic acid was dissolved in 1 mL of water. The tannic acid solution was spin-coated onto the polyvinyl alcohol surface to form a self-cracking template. Using the cracking template from Example 1 combined with magnetron sputtering and exfoliation to obtain a transparent metal mesh electrode, the metal linewidth was on the order of micrometers, the transmittance was around 80%, and the sheet resistance was less than 10 Ω / sq.

[0026] Example 2

[0027] 0.02 g of polyacrylonitrile was dissolved in 1 mL of N,N-dimethylformamide. The polyacrylonitrile solution was deposited on polyethylene terephthalate using a dip-coating method and dried. 0.2 g of tannic acid was dispersed in 1 mL of water. The tannic acid solution was drop-coated onto the polyacrylonitrile surface to form a self-cracking template. Using the cracking template from Example 2 combined with magnetron sputtering and peeling, a transparent metal mesh electrode was obtained. The metal linewidth was on the order of micrometers, the transmittance was around 80%, and the sheet resistance was less than 10 Ω / sq. The sheet resistance change rate after 1000 bends (bending radius 2 mm) was less than 30%, and the sheet resistance change rate after 100 3M tape adhesion / peeling cycles was less than 20%.

[0028] Example 3

[0029] 0.02 g of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was dissolved in 1 mL of chloroform. The PMMA solution was then deposited onto polyimide using a dip-coating method and dried. 0.2 g of tannic acid was dissolved in 1 mL of water. The tannic acid solution was then applied to the PMMA surface using a blade coating method to form a self-cracking template. Using the cracking template from Example 3, combined with magnetron sputtering and peeling, a transparent metal mesh electrode was obtained. The metal linewidth was on the order of micrometers, the transmittance was approximately 80%, and the sheet resistance was less than 10 Ω / sq. After 1000 bends (bending radius 2 mm), the sheet resistance change was less than 30%, and after 100 3M tape adhesion / peeling cycles, the sheet resistance change was less than 20%.

[0030] Example 4

[0031] 0.03 g of polyvinyl butyral was dissolved in 1 mL of ethanol. The polyvinyl butyral solution was deposited on a glass slide using a dip-coating method and then dried. 0.2 g of tannic acid was dissolved in 1 mL of water. The tannic acid solution was then used to form a self-cracking template on the surface of the polyvinyl butyral using a blade coating method. Using the cracking template from Example 4 combined with magnetron sputtering and exfoliation to obtain a transparent metal mesh electrode, the metal linewidth was on the order of micrometers, the transmittance was approximately 80%, and the sheet resistance was less than 10 Ω / sq.

[0032] Example 5

[0033] 0.03 g of polyvinyl butyral was dissolved in 1 mL of ethanol. The polyvinyl butyral solution was used to form a film on polyimide using the dip-coating method and then dried. 0.5 g of tannic acid was dissolved in 1 mL of water. The tannic acid was spin-coated onto the surface of polyvinyl butyral to form a self-cracking template. Using the cracking template from Example 5 combined with magnetron sputtering and peeling, a transparent metal mesh electrode was obtained. The metal linewidth was on the order of micrometers, the transmittance was around 80%, and the sheet resistance was less than 10 Ω / sq. The sheet resistance change rate after 1000 bends (bending radius 2 mm) was less than 30%, and the sheet resistance change rate after 100 3M tape adhesion / peeling cycles was less than 20%.

[0034] This invention uses tannic acid as the core material for self-crack pattern formation, and then uses the self-crack pattern combined with magnetron sputtering and peeling to prepare a metal mesh transparent electrode, which has good bending resistance and peel resistance.

[0035] Without causing conflict, those skilled in the art can freely combine and use the above-mentioned additional technical features.

[0036] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Any technical solution that achieves the purpose of the present invention by essentially the same means is within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for preparing a self-cracking template for a transparent metal mesh electrode, characterized in that: First, solvent 1 is used to dissolve or disperse the adhesive layer material to obtain solution 1; solution 1 is used to form a film on the substrate so that the adhesive layer is uniformly attached to the substrate surface; then, solvent 2 is used to dissolve or disperse tannic acid to obtain a tannic acid solution. Solvent 1 and solvent 2 are both selected from water, ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide, and chloroform; the adhesive layer material is selected from konjac gum, gum arabic, polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylonitrile, polyvinyl butyral, polystyrene, and polymethyl methacrylate; the substrate is selected from glass, polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, and polyethylene naphthalate. The tannic acid is the core material for the formation of the self-crack pattern. The tannic acid solution forms a self-crack pattern after drying on the surface of the adhesive layer. The self-crack pattern, combined with magnetron sputtering and exfoliation, can be used to prepare a transparent metal mesh electrode.

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