Date of Award

January 2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Industrial Engineering

First Advisor

Gary J. Cheng

Committee Member 1

Joseph Pekny

Committee Member 2

Xiulin Ruan

Committee Member 3

Hong Wan

Abstract

Direct printing of nanomaterials, which integrate nanomaterials into a film via low cost mean, is designed to fabricate transparent conductive electrode (TCE) film. Following laser processing is utilized as the post treatment to enhance the film performance. The laser processing is proposed in order to weld nanomaterials in nanoscale and enhance the electrical conductance of the nanomaterials film after direct printing. Rigid glass substrate was chosen as the substrate to load nanomaterials printing; however, this laser processing also can be utilized to nanomaterials printed on flexible substrate like polymer and bendable glass. Aluminum doped zinc oxide nanoparticles and silver nanowires were chosen as the printable nanomaterials. The laser – nanomaterial interaction and temperature evolution was studied by Comsol Multiphysics software. The nature intrinsic of laser induced localized nanowelding was simulated by Molecular Dynamic simulation. The SEM, TEM and XRD results show that microstructure of nanomaterials film was improved significantly after laser induced nanowelding. The performance evaluation confirms the improved optoelectronic property of nanomaterials printing film. The theoretical study of the electrical conductance enhancement is presented in the thesis. The direct printing techniques and ultra-fast laser processing have the potential to boost the efficiency when used in commercial mass – production.

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