Highly transparent polyimide hybrids for optoelectronic applications

Polyimides comprising high polarized moieties and electron-withdrawing groups usually exhibit high refractive index and good transparency with great potential for optoelectronic devices. Particularly, the incorporation of hydroxyl groups on the backbones of polyimides is an important strategy to enhance the solubility and provide reactive sites for organic-inorganic bonding. Composites prepared from organic polymer binder and inorganic fillers have recently attracted considerable interests due to their enhanced mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical properties compared to the corresponding polymer or inorganic component. Moreover, the inorganic components in hybrid films can also serve as electron acceptors for stabilizing the charge transfer complex thus result in electrically programmable digital memory properties. In addition, the high performance polyimides can further served as substrate and protector for the AgNWs-polyimide conductive hybrid films, exhibiting good adhesive property, high bendability, and excellent thermal stability. Owing to the high glass transition temperature (Tg) of polyimides, the resulted AgNWs-polyimide electrode can maintain its conducting performance at high temperature operation. Thus, the hybrid electrode provided extremely high potential to operate at harsh working environment or further post processing. By the excellent combination of transparent polyimides and inorganic materials, the resulting polyimide hybrids showing promising potential are indispensable to optical and electrical applications.