Transparent Cu nanowire mesh electrode on flexible substrates fabricated by transfer printing and its application in organic solar cells

We report the flexible transparent Cu nanowire mesh electrode fabricated by simple transfer printing from flexible PDMS stamp as a potential replacement for the conventional ITO electrode in organic solar cell applications. Fabricated Cu mesh electrode shows a greater flexibility than conventional ITO electrode deposited on plastic substrates, and exhibits high optical transmittance and electrical conductance. It can be bent to 3 mm radius of curvature with no degradation of the conductance. Large area nanoscale metal electrodes on flexible substrates are demonstrated using a roll-to-roll process. The organic solar cell made with the transparent Cu electrode performs as good as the one with ITO electrode, which indicates that such electrode has the potential to replace conventional ITO electrode for low-cost, large-area flexible organic solar cell applications.