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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

A new way of printing electrodes could make touchscreens in phones and other devices work and look better [futurity.org].

The new electrodes, some of the most transparent and conductive ever developed, take advantage of 3D printing to form a grid of gold or silver nanowalls on a glass surface.

The walls are so thin that they can hardly be seen with the naked eye. It is the first time that scientists have created nanowalls like these using 3D printing.

The new electrodes have a higher conductivity and are more transparent than those made of indium tin oxide, the standard material used in smartphones and tablets today. This is a clear advantage: The more transparent the electrodes, the better the screen quality. And the more conductive they are, the more quickly and precisely the touchscreen will work.

“Indium tin oxide is used because the material has a relatively high degree of transparency and the production of thin layers has been well researched, but it is only moderately conductive,” says Patrik Rohner, a PhD student at ETH Zurich who was involved with the research.

Original study [doi.org].

Original Submission