Copper nanowires enable flexible displays, solar panels

Imagine a foldable iPad that could be stowed in your vest pocket—that is the dream imagined by a team of Duke University researchers. Look for new technology that makes possible transparent flexible displays, solar panels and electronic circuitry within five years. R.C.J.


Unlike transparent conductors today, such as indium tin oxide (ITO) which is brittle, copper nanowire circuitry will be flexible and cheaper than ITO...Duke's copper nanowires are also claimed to outperform carbon nanotubes and yet be cheaper than silver nanowire technology, enabling arrays of electronic circuits for display pixels, solar cells or processors, to be contained in a transparent layer that is printed on a flexible plastic substrate at room temperature...The solution-based chemistry used to synthesize the copper nanowires allows for their self-assembly at specifically seeded sites, permitting their controlled growth into arrays that can be processed using high-volume roll-to-roll manufacturing processes that lower the cost of mass production compared with ITO today...
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