Abstract
Typical polyol-based synthesis of silver nanowire employs insulating polymer as a surfactant for the silver nanowire growth, which limits direct contact between each nanowire and thus its optoelectronic properties. We herein demonstrate that a simple solvent treatment effectively removes the insulating polymer around Ag NWs, leading to significantly decreased sheet resistance (~12 Ω/sq) with an increased transmittance (81% @ T550), as compared to other post-treatments. We successfully demonstrate the transparent film heaters using the solvent-treated Ag NWs network, which rapidly exhibited 150 °C under a bias of 5 V. Flexible film heaters on plastic substrate is also demonstrated, suggesting a great potential of the solvent treatment process of Ag NWs for flexible transparent electrode and film heater applications.
Highlights
Composites for Flexible TransparentA transparent conductive electrode (TCE) is an essential element in optoelectronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), liquid crystal displays (LCD), epapers, touch screen panels, sensors, and solar cells [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
We suggest a simple and facile method for achieving high optoelectronic properties of Ag NWs network to be used in TCE
Considering that the ethanol treatment is a non-toxic process suitable to a flexible substrate, we demonstrated the flexible thin film heaters (TFHs) with a rapid heating at lower operation voltage based on high quality Ag NWs network
Summary
Composites for Flexible TransparentA transparent conductive electrode (TCE) is an essential element in optoelectronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), liquid crystal displays (LCD), epapers, touch screen panels, sensors, and solar cells [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most well-known TCE material due to its excellent electrical conductivity and optical transmittance. Several alternatives for TCE such as graphene [9], single walled carbon nanotube [10], and conducting polymers have been studied as a replacement of ITO [11]. Those have been reported comparable optoelectronic properties of TCE in terms of electrical conductivity and optical transmittance to ITO [12], there still remain limitations in reproducibility, solution processing at low temperature, and materials cost
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
