Electrospun assembly: a nondestructive nanofabrication for transparent photosensors

Transparent electrodes based on a metal nanotrough network show superior electrical and optical properties. However, most metal networks fabricated by electrospinning are formed as film electrodes and are hard to pattern for the geometry shape of the device without any loss. Herein, we fabricate a highly transparent and flexible photodetector (PD) via a simple controlled electrospinning method. Owing to the trough- and belt-like geometry of Pt network electrodes, up to 83% transmittance can be obtained when the sheet resistances is 16 Ω sq⁻¹, which may be the best performance for Pt-based transparent electrodes at present. The benefit of this advantage, is that a wearable UV PD could be obtained by a facile electrospun assembly. This all-transparent device achieves an extraordinary transparency of 90% at 550 nm and an even superior response sensitivity compared with that of a Pt film-based sensor (14 Ω sq⁻¹ at 50% transparency). More importantly, this assembly approach has the versatility to enable us to fabricate highly transparent and flexible electronics in wearable applications, especially for the integration of oxide semiconductors and adhesive photoelectric hybrids. (paper)