Low-molecular weight polydimethylsiloxane, a versatile performance enhancer for the solution processed indium tin oxide transparent electrode

An ultra-thin low molecular weight (LMW) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer is introduced as an agent to enhance the electrical conductivity, transmittance, and anti-fogging function of a solution-processed indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film transparent electrode. Under argon plasma, Si[sbnd]C bonds of LMW PDMS are easily broken and become Si dangling bonds, which consumes oxygen from the ITO thin film, producing oxygen vacancies; at the same time, these bonds turn into SiO_x and serve as an optical layer to reduce the reflectivity of the thin film. As a result, the ITO's figure of merit, which is a performance index for transparent electrodes, increased by more than 10 times by the adoption of the agent LMW PDMS. Additionally, the SiO_x layer hydrophilizes the ITO surface so as to reinforce its anti-fogging ability. Using this SiO_x layer, an anti-fogging smart ITO glass was fabricated, which showed twice faster ability to eliminate the haze due to dew condensation on the ITO surface compared to the conventional ITO thin film.