Template-Electrodeposited and Imprint-Transferred Microscale Metal-Mesh Transparent Electrodes for Flexible and Stretchable Electronics

A scalable fabrication strategy is reported for the solution-based electrochemical fabrication of microscale metal meshes from reusable, non-sacrificial templates. This approach enables the reproducible fabrication of meshes, potentially made of any electrochemically depositable metal and transferable to a variety of polymeric substrates. Unlike other existing approaches, this benchtop method repetitively mass-produces metal meshes whose geometric features are predefined by a template, without requiring lithography or any vacuum processes in each production cycle. Using this technique, a number of prototype-flexible and stretchable transparent electrodes with an embedded metal mesh with micro-sized linewidths are demonstrated with transmittance as high as 90% and sheet resistance as low as 0.036 Ω□⁻¹, corresponding to a high figure of merit of 3.4 × 10⁴ at 4 μm mesh linewidth, and the electrodeposition template showed no degradation after at least 20 production cycles. In addition to outstanding optical and electrical performances, the resulting electrodes show excellent mechanical robustness and stability against chemicals and harsh environment. The electrodes are further tested in flexible bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells and stretchable transparent thin-film heaters, confirming their suitability and reliability for practical applications.