Trilayer Nanomesh Films with Tunable Wettability as Highly Transparent, Flexible, and Recyclable Electrodes

Metallic mesh materials are promising candidates to replace traditional transparent conductive oxides such as indium tin oxide (ITO) that is restricted by the limited indium resource and its brittle nature. The challenge of metal based transparent conductive networks is to achieve high transmittance, low sheet resistance, and small perforation size simultaneously, all of which significantly relate to device performances in optoelectronics. In this work, trilayer dielectric/metal/dielectric (D/M/D) nanomesh electrodes are reported with precisely controlled perforation size, wire width, and uniform hole distribution employing the nanosphere lithography technique. TiO2/Au/TiO2 nanomesh films with small hole diameter (<= 700 nm) and low thickness (<= 50 nm) are shown to yield high transmittance (>90%), low sheet resistance (<= 70 omega sq(-1)), as well as outstanding flexural endurance and feasibility for large area patterning. Further, by tuning the surface wettability, these films are applied as easily recyclable flexible electrodes for electrochromic devices. The simple and cost-effective fabrication of diverse D/M/D nanomesh transparent conductive films with tunable optoelectronic properties paves a way for the design and realization of specialized transparent electrodes in optoelectronics.