One-Pot Fabrication of Hollow Polymer@Ag Nanospheres for Printable Translucent Conductive Coatings

Development of printable conductive inks for applications in printable electronics by facile methods is important. Here, this study demonstrates a robust and facile one-pot approach for printable polymer@Ag nanospheres with well-defined hollow morphology. The polymer@Ag nanospheres are fabricated through metal-complexation induced phase separation assisted by a functionalized graft copolymer consisting of an Ag-complexing stem chain and side chains for stabilization of the nanosphere. Enough length of the grafted chains is necessary to attain the formation of the hollow polymer@Ag nanosphere. Translucent thin layers with excellent conductivity can be obtained by spray-coating of the nanostructure dispersion on a glass substrate. Translucent grid patterns with excellent horizontal conductivity (8.5 x 10(5) S m(-1)) on multiple substrates are also prepared by ink-jet printing without annealing.