Au-decorated graphene-carbon nanotube hybrid thin film for sub-100 ohm/sq transparent conductive electrodes

High transparency and low sheet resistance flexible conductive electrode is of great interest to research communities working on applications such as solar cells and light emitting diodes. For this purpose, Au-decorated graphene-single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) thin films are developed and characterized in this work. Initially, the SWCNT is spin-coated on a Cu foil. It is then placed in thermal chemical vapor deposition machine for graphene synthesis. The film is then transferred onto an appropriate substrate. Immersion in AuCl
₃
decorates the film with Au nanoparticles. Optical and electrical characterizations show that the film retains the high graphene transmittance of ~95% and exhibits a much lower sheet resistance of ~100 ohm/sq, respectively. Figure of merit is then defined and it shows that the hybrid film is at par with indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conductive electrode (TCE). This suggests that the hybrid film could be applied as TCE and potentially be used in flexible applications.