Roll-to-roll processed, highly conductive, and flexible aluminum (Al) electrodes based on Al precursor inks

Abstract

In this study, a roll-to-roll (R2R) process for the large-scale fabrication of aluminum thin films on flexible polyimide (PI) films is proposed. The R2R machine for Al-film coating assembled in the current work uses a previously reported Al etherate-based precursor ink as the source. After the PI substrate is exposed to a diluted catalyst, the Al precursor ink is coated directly on to the substrate by a slit-die coating method. To optimize the injection of the Al precursor ink, a low-flow limit was established. At a film speed of 5 cm s⁻¹, the width of the fabricated Al film was 130 mm. Such Al-coated films exhibit many advantageous features, including 5.87 × 10⁶ S m⁻¹ of high electrical conductivity at 60.9 nm film thickness and high durability with good adhesion. There was only a minor change in the resistance of the film when it was heated at 100 °C in an oven for 10 days or when it was exposed to H₂O or ethyl alcohol. Flexibility and tape testing was also conducted and the film showed robustness in both cases. Touch panels (7 cm × 9 cm) were fabricated using the fabricated Al-coated film as one side of the panel; the panel showed enough sensitivity to write recognizable letters on the computer. This indicates that the fabricated Al films can be applied in actual electronic devices without further complicated processing.