Investigation of optimal silver nanowires film as conductive wires for LED

Abstract

In the study, the Polyol reduction process was used to fabricate silver nanowires (AgNWs). In the experiment, the ratio of PVP/Ag, silver seed, AgNO₃ and the amount of ethylene glycol (EG) were adopted to design orthogonal array with a constant temperature and heating time and the synthesis parameters of AgNWs were obtained. Therefore, the optimal AgNWs solution was obtained, followed by centrifuging to obtain AgNWs which were used to fabricate AgNWs film. The scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscope (FTIR), Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) and four-point probe were used to measure the sheet resistant and transmittance of AgNWs film. Moreover, the AgNWs film was adopted to be the conductive wires of LED. From the experiment results, the synthesis parameter of 15ml EG, 0.01g AgCl, ratio 2 of PVP/Ag and 0.22g AgNO₃ could be used to fabricate optimal AgNWs with 45nm average diameter, 5μm average length and aspect ratio of 110. The sheet resistance and transmittance of film fabricated by centrifuged AgNWs was 0.1252 Ω/sq and 70%, respectively. Furthermore, the luminance of LED with conductive wires made of AgNWs film was better than that made of commercial silver plastic. In the future, the AgNWs film can be broadly applied to the conductive films of touch electric products, LCD display and solar panels.