Highly Conductive and Environmentally Stable Organic Transparent Electrodes Laminated with Graphene

Improving the lifetime and the operational and thermal stability of organic thin-film materials while maintaining high conductivity and mechanical flexibility is critical for flexible electronics applications. Here, it is reported that highly conductive and environmentally stable organic transparent electrodes (TEs) can be fabricated by mechanically laminating poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) films containing dimethylsulfoxide and Zonyl fluorosurfactant (PDZ films) with a monolayer graphene barrier. The proposed lamination process allows graphene to be coated onto the PDZ films uniformly and conformally with tight interfacial binding, free of wrinkles and air gaps. The laminated films exhibit an outstanding room-temperature hole mobility of ≈85.1 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ since the graphene can serve as an effective bypass for charge carriers. The significantly improved stability of the graphene-laminated TEs against high mechanical/thermal stress, humidity, and ultraviolet irradiation is particularly promising. Furthermore, the incorporation of the graphene barrier increases the expected lifetime of the TEs by more than two orders of magnitude.