1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a conductive member, a conductive member, and a touch panel using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
While ITO is widely used as a conductive material for an electrode which is used for a display apparatus such as a touch panel-equipped liquid crystal display or an organic EL display (for example, a handheld terminal and a mobile phone), an integrated solar cell, and the like, there are problems of a small reserve of indium metal, the color tone caused by a low permeability in a long wavelength range, a necessity of a high-temperature thermal treatment for decreasing resistance, low bending resistance, and the like, and therefore a variety of studies are being conducted regarding alternative materials to ITO.
As one of the alternative materials, a conductive material for which conductive metal nanowires are used has been proposed (for example, US2007/0074316A), and expectation is increasing as an alternative material to ITO glass or TIO films since the metal nanowires are excellent in terms of transparency, low resistance, and the reduction of the amount of metal used.
However, due to the wire structure, the metal nanowires have problems of a high haze value and weak durability under high humidity and temperature conditions.
In addition, particularly, in an apparatus requiring a patterning electrode such as a display apparatus like a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, or a touch panel, when a transparent electrode is patterned, there are problems in that the difference in the haze value between sections including the metal nanowires (conductive regions) and sections including no metal nanowires (non-conductive regions) is great, and the electrode pattern becomes easily visible.
Therefore, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,018,568A proposes a method for decreasing the difference in haze between conductive sections and non-conductive sections by partially cutting the metal nanowires and leaving the metal nanowires or metal nanorods of metal nanowire fragments in the non-conductive sections. In addition, for example, JP2010-157400A proposes a method for decreasing the haze difference between the conductive sections and the non-conductive sections by forming fine pinholes to be as small as being seemingly invisible in a conductive nanofiber layer using a method for forming a pattern through energy ray radiation or etching resist so as to form the non-conductive sections.
Furthermore, for example, JP2010-287540A discloses a method for insulating a conductive nanofiber by forcibly oxidizing the conductive nanofiber using a plasma treatment or a corona treatment. As described above, techniques for making the pattern invisible or stealthy are actively developed to solve the problem of the appearance of the pattern.