A 250-mm-width, flexible, and continuous roll-to-roll slot-die coated carbon nanotube/silver nanowire film fabrication and a study on the effect of anti-reflective overcoat

Abstract Roll-to-roll (R2R) slot-die coating process for the carbon nanotube (CNT)/silver nanowire (AgNW) hybrid film and anti-reflection (AR) overcoating were performed. The R2R process was performed at an operating speed of 2 m/min at various flow rate conditions to control the wet thickness of the layer. The R2R process includes the CNT/AgNW hybrid coating, washing with a tank and spray unit, and AR coating to improve the transparency of the layer. The correlation between the washing time and the properties of the coated layer such as sheet resistance and transmittance were identified. Moreover, the changes in the sheet resistance and the transmittance performance with respect to the wet thickness of the CNT/AgNW and AR layers were studied. Finally, the relationship between the performances and the process conditions were analyzed using the developed non-dimensional numbers. A 250-mm-wide, transparent, conductive film was fabricated that has a sheet resistance of 102 Ω/□ and transmittance of 87.03%. In the case of AR coating, the sheet resistance and the transmittance were obtained as 185 Ω/□ (initial value: 139.84) and 90.65% (initial value: 87.76), respectively. It is important to understand the characteristics of the conductive layer and the AR layer that should be considered with the specifications of the final product film (device).