Hybrid Films for Flexible Touch Screens on Electronic Devices
Engineering360 News Desk | April 03, 2015Scientists from Kyungpook National University in South Korea have developed a method—acid-free sol-gel fabrication technique—to create a type of hybrid film composed of organic and inorganic materials, which can be used in touch screen devices.
Polymer scientists Park Soo-Young and Cho A-Ra offer this as a solution to touch screens that break and crack easily, and say this new thin film is more flexible and durable—without sacrificing any of its electrical or optical properties.
Touch screens are normally made of layered thin films of tin-indium oxide and these inorganic films require the use of acids that can corrode the metals and metal oxides in the devices' electronic components. Furthermore, according to Park and Cho, an inorganic film with higher resistance has lower electrical conductivity, meaning that more voltage must be applied to send a signal through it, which further degrades the material.
"Therefore acid-free methods of synthesizing organic-inorganic hybrid materials are needed for optical thin-film applications," says Park.
Park and Cho started their work with a co-polymer made up of two organic materials, methyl methacrylate and 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate which are combined with trialkoxysilane. This co-polymer is then reacted with two inorganic chemicals to synthesize hybrid layers with high- and low-refractive indexes.
Compared to the non-hybrid film, the hybrid film showed less depreciation in flexibility after 10,000 bending cycles Moreover, these new hybrid films have a resistance that decreases over time, therefore allowing the display from these films to last longer. With cheaper production cost, this may lead to hybrid films being used in an assortment of potential applications.