Fabrication of self-assembled transparent electrodes with a screen printing mesh

Fabrication of transparent electrodes by self assembly of metal nanoparticles under screen printing mesh

A screen printing mesh and plastic substrate are hydrophilized by using plasma cleaning and washing. The mesh is composed of metal or plastic wires having a diameter of 20-50 micrometer.
Once the mesh is placed on the plastic substrate, a droplet of the ink containing the NP is dropped on top of the mesh. Once the droplet is placed on the mesh, it immediately wets the surface and fills the gap between the wires of the mesh and the plastic substrate. During the evaporation the NP align according to the wires of the mesh forming a grid composed from very narrow line with a width of under 5 micrometers. The final step is sintering at room temperature, which typically results in a 85% transparency and a 5 Ohms per square sheet resistance.