Foldable Transparent Substrates with Embedded Electrodes for Flexible Electronics

We present highly flexible transparent electrodes composed of silver nanowire (AgNW) networks and silica aerogels embedded into UV-curable adhesive photopolymers (APPs). Because the aerogels have an extremely high surface-to-volume ratio, the enhanced van der Waals forces of the aerogel surfaces result in more AgNWs being uniformly coated onto a release substrate and embedded into the APP when mixed with an AgNW solution at a fixed concentration. The uniform distribution of the embedded composite electrodes of AgNWs and aerogels was verified by the Joule heating test. The APP with the composite electrodes has a lower sheet resistance (<i>R</i>_s) and a better mechanical stability compared with APP without aerogels. The APP with the embedded electrodes is a freestanding flexible substrate and can be used as an electrode coating on a polymer substrate, such as polydimethylsiloxane and polyethylene terephthalate. On the basis of the bending test results, the APPs with composite electrodes were sufficiently flexible to withstand a 1 mm bending radius (<i>r</i>_b) and could be foldable with a slight change in <i>R</i>_s. Organic light emitting diodes were successfully fabricated on the APP with the composite electrodes, indicating the strong potential of the proposed flexible TEs for application as highly flexible transparent conductive substrates