Characteristics of silver meshes coated with carbon nanotubes via spray-coating and electrophoretic deposition for touch screen panels

• Hybrid-type electrodes have been fabricated using CNTs-coated Ag meshes.
• Ag mesh electrodes have been deposited on glass substrates via sputtering method.
• CNTs have been deposited on Ag meshes via spray coating and EPD methods.
• The reflectance of the Ag mesh can be significantly decreased by coating CNTs.
• The increase in sheet resistance due to oxidation can be minimized by coating CNTs.

This study demonstrates hybrid-type transparent electrodes for touch screen panels. The hybrid-type electrodes were fabricated by coating silver (Ag) meshes with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Thin Ag films were deposited on glass substrates using the sputtering method, and were then patterned via photolithography to obtain mesh structures with a 10 μm line width and 300 μm line-to-line spacing. The Ag meshes were coated with CNTs using two different methods: spray coating and electrophoretic deposition (EPD). For the samples of Ag meshes with no CNT coating as well as of CNT-coated Ag meshes, the visible-range transmittance and reflectance as well as the surface morphology were characterized and compared. The change in sheet resistance due to long-term exposure to air with an 85 °C temperature and 85% humidity was also measured. The experimental results indicated that the reflectance of the Ag mesh electrodes was substantially reduced by the CNT coating. Especially, the Ag mesh electrodes with EPD-coated CNTs showed excellent properties, such as higher than 80% transmittance, lower than 8% reflectance, and better stability.