Bimetallic copper-based nanowires and the means to create next-generation stable transparent electrodes

Abstract

Metallic nanowire percolating networks are one of the promising alternatives to conventional transparent conducting electrodes. Among the conductive metals, copper appears as a relevant alternative to develop electrodes in a more sustainable and economical way (abundance of the supplies, geo-political risks regarding the supplies, environmental impact, and cost). However, Cu nanowires suffer from high instability in air, and one of the ways to increase stability as well as to boost properties related to transparent electrodes is to combine the Cu with another metal, resulting in bimetallic nanowires. Even though the field of fabrication of nanoalloys has been advancing at a rapid pace in the last two decades, binary nanowires are difficult to produce due to a wide range of parameters that must be aligned in regard to metals that are being combined, such as surface energy of the bulk metal, atomic radii, crystal lattice matching, redox potentials, etc. In this review, we present the current research landscape in making Cu-based bimetallic nanowires for the development of metal nanowire networks with high oxidation resistance. This analysis allows identifying the most promising bimetallic materials for obtaining highly efficient, robust, and cost-effective electrodes.