Abstract
There has been lately a growing interest into flexible, efficient and low-cost transparent electrodes which can be integrated for many applications. This includes several applications related to energy technologies (photovoltaics, lighting, supercapacitor, electrochromism, etc.) or displays (touch screens, transparent heaters, etc.) as well as Internet of Things (IoT) linked with renewable energy and autonomous devices. This associated industrial demand for low-cost and flexible industrial devices is rapidly increasing, creating a need for a new generation of transparent electrodes (TEs). Indium tin oxide has so far dominated the field of TE, but indium’s scarcity and brittleness have prompted a search into alternatives. Metallic nanowire (MNW) networks appear to be one of the most promising emerging TEs. Randomly deposited MNW networks, for instance, can present sheet resistance values below 10 Ω/sq., optical transparency of 90% and high mechanical stability under bending tests. AgNW or CuNW networks are destined to address a large variety of emerging applications. The main properties of MNW networks, their stability and their integration in energy devices are discussed in this contribution.
Highlights
Transparent electrodes (TEs) are key components for many industrial devices
As discussed Metallic nanowire (MNW) networks exhibit strong potential to act as efficient transparent electrodes for many applications
MNW exhibits high transparency and low electrical resistance levels, which are associated with excellent bendability and good stretchability
Summary
Transparent electrodes (TEs) are key components for many industrial devices. TEs do concern applications related to energy field such as photovoltaics or efficient lighting (light emitting diode, LED, or organic-LED, OLED), smart windows or supercapacitors and are associated to rapidly increasing industrial needs. Another advantage of MNW networks is their high optical transparency in the near-infrared spectrum, especially when compared with TCO: this is of importance for transparent solar cell applications For those reasons, printed AgNW network-based electrodes have shown a potential as transparent and flexible electrodes in many displays such as solar cells [16–19], OLEDs [20], displays [21], supercapacitors [22], transparent heaters [23–25], radio-frequency antennas [26], antibacterial films [27] or smart windows [28]. In this contribution, we focus on TEs made of AgNWs or CuNWs and will first briefly discuss the role of the nanowire dimensions (both length and diameter) and network density on the physical properties. We will briefly discuss the integration of MNW network-based transparent electrodes for energy applications
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