Graphene based electrodes to revolutionise touch screen displays?

The team's thin film combines a single layer sheet of highly conductive graphene with a fine grid of metal nanowire. The researchers claim the new material easily outperforms ITO and other competing materials by offering better transparency and lower resistance to electric current. "Many people are working on ITO replacements and other labs have looked at using pure graphene," said Rice chemist James Tour, who led the team. "However, when you put graphene on a substrate, it doesn't have high enough conductivity at a high enough transparency. It has to be assisted in some way." By combining graphene and fine metal meshes, Tour's team produced a flexible thin film with high conductivity, high transparency and at a lower cost compared to ITO. According to Tour, the metal grid strengthened the graphene, whilst the graphene filled the empty spaces between the grid. The researcher believes the metal grids could be easily produced on a flexible substrate via standard techniques, including roll to roll and ink jet printing. "Right now, ITO is the only commercial electrode we have, but it's brittle," he said. "Our transparent electrode has better conductivity than ITO and it's flexible. This material is ready to scale right now."