Stress modulation in desiccating crack networks for producing effective templates for patterning metal network based transparent conductors

A drying layer of a colloidal dispersion tends to produce cracks, often in a network, due to internal stress arising from the rearrangement of particles while the substrate adhesion resists such movements. The stress can be modulated using experimental agents such as electric field, humidity, and surface structuring. In this work, repeated wet-drying cycles of the cracking layer have been used as stress modulating agents taking an aqueous dispersion of acrylic resin nanoparticles as the colloidal layer, offering cracks with widths in the sub-ten micrometer range. With increasing wet-drying cycles, the colloidal layer is seen to develop higher crack density and connectivity, as well as a well-defined hierarchy of formation. Thus developed crack layers have been used as templates for depositing metals (Cu and Au) to realize fine metal wire meshes. The latter serve as transparent conductors with excellent optoelectronic properties.