New approach for fabricating hybrid-structured metal mesh films for flexible transparent electrodes by the combination of electrospinning and metal deposition

Abstract

In this study, hybrid-structured metal mesh (HMM) films as potential flexible transparent electrodes, composed of aligned micro-sized metal fibers integrated into random network of metal nanofibers, were fabricated by the combination of electrospinning and metal deposition. These naturally fiber-bridged HMMs, with a gold layer thickness of 85 nm, exhibited a high transmittance of around 90% and a sheet resistance of approximately 10 Omega sq(-1), as well as favorable mechanical stability under bending stress. These results demonstrate that the approach employed herein is a simple, highly efficient, and facile process for fabricating, uniform, interconnected fiber networks with potential for producing high-performance flexible transparent electrodes.