Highly flexible, hybrid-structured indium tin oxides for transparent electrodes on polymer substrates

We developed highly flexible, hybrid-structured crystalline indium tin oxide (ITO) for use as transparent electrodes on polymer substrates by embedding Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) into the substrate. The hybrid ITO consists of domains in one orientation grown on the AgNPs and a matrix of the other orientation. The domains are stronger than the matrix and function as barriers to crack propagation. As a result, both the critical bending radius (r_c) (under which the resistivity change (Δρ) is less than a given value) and the change in Δρ with decreasing r significantly decreased in the hybrid ITO compared with homogenous ITO.