Femtosecond Laser Patterning Wettability‐Assisted PDMS for Fabrication of Flexible Silver Nanowires Electrodes

Abstract In this paper, a facile method is demonstrated to fabricate high resolution silver nanowires (AgNWs) electrode by combining femtosecond laser patterning and oxygen plasma treatment. The laser precision cutting selectively removes the thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mask to expose the target PDMS substrate. The subsequent oxygen plasma treatment makes the target substrate hydrophilic. The resulting wetting/dewetting pattern allows for selective trapping of AgNWs solutions into the hydrophilic regions. The geometry of AgNWs electrode can be readily tuned by varying the cutting path of laser patterning mask. Improving the cutting accuracy of mask by adjusting laser processing parameters, the minimum width of the AgNWs electrode can be reduced to 50 µm. The prepared AgNWs electrodes show good conductivity even after tensile strain less than 20% or 5000 bending cycles at 4 mm bending radius. Furthermore, using the patterned AgNWs electrodes, flexible electroluminescent displays are constructed, which exhibit bright and uniform emission with clear edges; even the track width is only 50 µm. This method provides a novel approach to pattern complex electrode for the application of flexible electronic products.