Scalable Fabrication of High-Performance Flexible Transparent Conducting Electrodes via Blade-Coating and Photonic Curing for Optoelectronic Applications

Scalable Fabrication of High-Performance Flexible Transparent Conducting Electrodes via Blade-Coating and Photonic Curing for Optoelectronic Applications | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Scalable Fabrication of High-Performance Flexible Transparent Conducting Electrodes via Blade-Coating and Photonic Curing for Optoelectronic Applications Julia Hsu, Robert Piper, Bishal Bhandari, Justin Bonner, Matthew Davis, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3711135/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Flexible transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) are critical components for many optoelectronic applications. Currently, indium tin oxide (ITO) TCEs dominate the market, but it is difficult to achieve high-performance ITO on plastic substrates. Metal nanostructures are promising alternatives for flexible TCEs because of their high transparency, excellent electrical conductance, and compatibility with roll-to-roll manufacturing. In this work, we combine flexographically printed Ag metal bus lines with a blade-coated Ag nanowire layer that is overcoated with indium zinc oxide and photonically cured to create flexible hybrid TCEs on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. Photonic curing is a promising alternative to thermal annealing as it can rapidly elevate the temperature of specific layers within microseconds or milliseconds without significantly increasing the temperature of low thermal budget plastic substrates. We chose blade-coating and photonic curing to fabricate the hybrid TCEs because both processes can be scaled to large areas. Our hybrid TCE achieves an average transmittance of 81%, an average sheet resistance of 11 Ω/sq, and a surface roughness of 4.3 nm. To evaluate the hybrid TCE performance, we fabricated halide perovskite solar cells on them and compared the results to solar cells made on commercially available PET/TCE substrates. Finally, we scaled up the blade-coating and photonic curing process from 1 in x 3 in samples to 7 in x 8 in samples to demonstrate uniform fabrication of large-area hybrid TCEs. Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for devices Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Energy harvesting Transparent conducting electrode Photonic curing Intense pulsed light Roll-to-roll Silver nanowires Blade-coating Full Text Additional Declarations (Not answered) Supplementary Files BladeCoatingandPhotonicCuringTCESMsubmitted.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3711135","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":257018157,"identity":"1a73dfbd-91ab-4936-b171-c07603715013","order_by":0,"name":"Julia 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