Indium tin oxide (ITO) show the outstanding combination of high conductivity, and transmittance in the visible region. Owing to its unique properties, ITO has been used in many scientific applications, such as flexible device, touch panels, flat panel displays. usually, ITO thin films have been deposited by chemical vapor deposition techniques, and sputtering. However, these techniques require high vacuum and sophisticated instruments, which increase the cost of the deposition process. Futhermore, the ITO solution for thin film fabrication has been made using organic solvents, such as ethylene glycol, ethanol, and methanol. But, these organic solvents are costly, or harmful to the environment. Herein, unlike conventional coating methods, we fabricated highly crystalline, conductive and transparent ITO thin films on flexible substrate using eco-friendly deionized water as a solvent and the cost-saving spin coating approach. However, direct ITO-coating approaches on a flexible substrate by spin-coating have yet to be reported in the literature. Therefore, we introduced a new PDMS stamping method to coat the ITO solution on flexible substrates by increasing surface area through PDMS nanostructure as well as hydrophobicity dramatically after its exposition to UVO. This approach improved the deposition efficiency and electrical conductivity of ITO thin films. This study can be used for a variety of industrial applications such as foldable and wearable devices.

Development of the facile ITO coating method on flexible substrates using PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) nanostructures and the spin-coating approaches

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.