Flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs) have attracted much attention due to their advantages of excellent optical/electrical conductivities and good mechanical fatigue strength. However, their fabrication presents several challenges, including fabricating wires with a high aspect ratio and sufficient tensile resistance. In this study, an embedded Ag/Cu metal-mesh FTE with a high figure of merit 24,708 (sheet resistance 0.08 Ω/sq and 83.4% optical transmittance) is fabricated through the proposed method called self-confined electrohydrodynamic printing and selective electroplating of Cu. This method employs structured surfaces and patterned hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties to enable highly controllable deposition of solutions (e.g., positioning, line width, consistency), allowing the complete filling of imprinted microgrooves with a high aspect ratio of 2 (e.g., 4 μm width and 8 μm depth) with Ag/Cu metal. Moreover, the resulting FTEs demonstrate good resistance stability under repetitive bending and stretching and exhibit excellent performance in flexible transparent heaters and electromagnetic shielding films.
Wang et al. (2024) studied this question.