Towards low cost materials and methods for transparent electrodes

•Low-cost flexible transparent conducting electrodes are vital for flexitronics.•It is a challenge to produce transparent electrodes, acceptable in industry.•Self-forming processes hold good promise for inexpensive transparent electrodes.

A transparent electrode is a key component of any optoelectronic or transparent device. With increasing number of large area applications, there is growing demand to replace the conventional oxide based transparent conducting films with nanomaterials, primarily to reduce the cost. This review deals with a range of materials and processes forming new generation transparent electrodes, while giving some insight into the cost.