Lift-off patterning of Ag nanowire/PEDOT:PSS composite films for transparent electrodes using a fluoropolymer structure

• The patterns of silver nanowire on organic films were formed by lift-off process.
• Masking material was fluoropolymer, poly(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl methacrylate).
• The fluoropolymer patterns can avoid solvent orthogonality problems.
• The patterned composite films can be embedded into organic films by hot pressing.
• The embedded composite films have a smooth surface and good mechanical stability.

This paper describes a lift-off method of Ag nanowire (Ag NW) patterning using a poly(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl methacrylate) polymer (PFDMA) structure as a mask which is prepared by micro-contact printing. Unlike a conventional photoresist mask, the PFDMA polymer is inert to the dispersion solvent of Ag NW. In addition, the hydrofluoroether solvent used for removing the mask layer of patterned PFDMA films after Ag NW deposition does not chemically affect the polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate or poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) coated on Ag NW layer. In this method, Ag NW/PEDOT:PSS composite films were patterned and the effects of the hot-press method were examined to further improve the electrical and optical properties of the composite films. Moreover, the hot-press method at 110 °C has an advantage of applying low pressure to make Ag NW/PEDOT:PSS embedded into PEN films compared to that of pressing samples without heating. The ratio of resistance change of patterned and hot-pressed composite film was only below 1% after repeated bending test.