Flexible metal nanowire-parylene C transparent electrodes for next generation optoelectronic devices

We prepared high performance metal nanowire (NW)-parylene C transparent electrodes (TEs) using pyrolytic deposition of a parylene C protection layer onto a silver nanowire (AgNW) or copper nanowire (CuNW) film at room temperature for the first time. The AgNW-parylene C TE showed superior optoelectronic properties such as high optical transmittance (94.7%) and low sheet resistance (41.6 Ω sq−1), comparable to a conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) TE. The AgNW-parylene C TE fabricated on a plastic substrate possessed outstanding flexibility. Moreover, the AgNW-parylene C and CuNW-parylene C TEs exhibited significantly improved oxidation and chemical stability due to the outstanding gas barrier properties of the parylene C protection layer. Furthermore, the potential suitability of the AgNW-parylene C TE was successfully demonstrated by fabricating flexible polymer solar cells. We expect that the flexible metal NW-parylene C TEs can be used as key elements for a variety of next generation optoelectronic devices.