Transparent Conductive Printable Meshes Based on Percolation Patterns

Transparent conductive meshes were fabricated by inkjet printing on flexible substrate using a percolation pattern created by random removal of conducting bonds from a regular square two-dimensional lattice. With this approach, a higher gain in optical transmittance than electrical conductivity loss is achieved above the percolation threshold. As a result of this, a figure of merit for the percolation pattern is improved with respect to a regular square mesh. The transmittance (T), sheet resistance (R), and figure of merit (F) on percentage of removed bonds for square lattices were measured. The gain of the figure of merit was observed in the range of removed bonds from 5% to 15%. Our best samples exhibit T = 84%, R = 1.3 Ω/sq, and F = 130 × 10–3 Ω–1 (highest F value and lowest R value) and T = 93%, R = 8 Ω/sq, and F = 65 × 10–3 Ω–1 (highest T value). This demonstrates an excellent transparent conductive film (TCF) performance and is significantly better than any continuous TCF. The percolation meshes demonstrate good mechanical stability and the absence of a Moiré effect. A distinctive feature of this method is its universality and capability of being adapted to any symmetrical or asymmetrical pattern and deposition technique.