Fabrication of Short Circuit-Preventing Electrodes with a Self-assembled Monolayer on Flashlight-Sintered Porous Copper Nanofilms

This study reports the fabrication of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs)-based superhydrophobic electrode using flashlight sintering. To fabricate superhydrophobic electrode, CuNPs with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) of various concentrations was sintered by flashlight irradiations. After then, the self-assembled monolayers (SAM) were formed by vapor-deposition of 1-dodecanethiol (DDT) on the CuNPs film. During flashlight sintering, the surface roughness of CuNPs film could be controlled by changing the concentration PVP. The surface roughness was tended to increase with the decreasing concentration of PVP. As a result, the largest roughness of 7.28 μmR_a was obtained with 0.01 g of PVP. Due to the unique characteristic of flashlight sintering, the highly porous and rough surface could be obtained with superior electric conductivity from CuNPs. The harmonic effects of secondary roughness and hydrophobic surface were achieved by the flashlight sintering process and SAM, respectively. These led to the successful fabrication of superhydrophobic copper tracks (contact angle: 169.08° ± 11.36, resistance: 0.13 ± 0.05 Ω/sq). By dropping the water droplet on the electrode, the performance of short-circuit for water prevention was investigated.