Kill Two Birds with\nOne Stone: Cracking Lithography\nTechnology for High-Performance Flexible Metallic Network Transparent\nConductors and Metallic Micronano Sheets

Flexible electronics have sparked a wide range of exciting\napplications,\nsuch as flexible display technologies, lighting, sensing, etc. Flexible\nconductors are essential components of flexible electronics and seriously\naffect efficiency and overall performance. Here, a facile and kill-two-birds-with-one-stone\nstrategy of cracking lithography technology has been proposed to simultaneously\nfabricate two high-performance flexible conductors, flexible metallic\nnetwork transparent conductors (<i>f</i>-NTCs) and metallic\nmicronano sheets (MMNSs). The PET substrate flexible transparent conductors\n(FTCs) based on this strategy yield 88.1% transparency within the\nvisible spectrum and a sheet resistance of 9 Ω/sq. In addition,\nthe FTCs show exceptional mechanical stability, with the sheet resistance\nremaining virtually unchanged even after 6000 s of bending tests.\nSubsequently, the remaining MMNSs are recycled to manufacture a Ag\npaste, showing a very low conductive percolation threshold (∼13%)\nand excellent flexibility with 140% breaking elongation. After 1000\ns of stretching tests, it showed excellent mechanical stability. Furthermore,\nflexible electroluminescent devices based on the FTCs and sensors\nfabricated with MMNSs both show excellent performance, demonstrating\ntheir potential wide applications in flexible electronics.