Moisture-Assisted Formation of High-Quality Silver Nanowire Transparent Conductive Films with Low Junction Resistance

Lipeng Zhou,Yuehui Hu,Huiwen Liu,Hao Gao,Pengfei Wang,Lilin Zhan,Wei Liu,Keyan Hu,Ke Zhou,Yichuan Chen,Ning Chang,Wenjun Zhu,Di Wang,Fang Hu,Youliang Gao

doi:10.3390/coatings11060671

Lipeng Zhou, Yuehui Hu + Show 13 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings11060671

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Journal: Coatings	Publication Date: Jun 1, 2021
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Jingdezhen University, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute

Abstract

Silver nanowire (AgNWs) transparent conductive film (TCF) is considered to be the most favorable material to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) as the next-generation transparent conductive film. However, the disadvantages of AgNWs, such as easy oxidation and high wire-wire junction resistance, dramatically limit its commercial application. In this paper, moisture treatment was adopted, and water was dripped on the surface of AgNWs film or breathed on the surface so that the surface was covered with a layer of water vapor. The morphology of silver nanowire mesh nodes is complex, and the curvature is large. According to the capillary condensation theory, water molecules preferentially condense near the geometric surface with significant curvature. The capillary force is generated, making the wire-wire junction of AgNWs mesh bond tightly, resulting in good ohmic contact. The experimental results show that AgNWs-TCF treated by moisture has better conductivity, with an average sheet resistance of 20 Ω/sq and more uniform electrical properties. The bending test and adhesion test showed that AgNWs-TCF treated by moisture still exhibited good mechanical bending resistance and environmental stability.

Highlights

With the rapid development of electronic science and technology, transparent conductive oxide (TCF) is widely used in touch panels, solar cells [1], organic light emitting diode [2], wearable devices [3], window defrosting, or thermal insulation window [4], etc.At present, indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conductive film has outstanding photoelectric properties compared with other materials [5,6] and, is the most widely used material in commerce, with a market share as high as 95%
Indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conductive film has outstanding photoelectric properties compared with other materials [5,6] and, is the most widely used material in commerce, with a market share as high as 95%
The scarcity of indium resources, high deposition temperature, expensive preparation cost, and essentially inherent brittleness largely limits its application in flexible electronics devices [7,8,9]

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of electronic science and technology, transparent conductive oxide (TCF) is widely used in touch panels, solar cells [1], organic light emitting diode [2], wearable devices [3], window defrosting, or thermal insulation window [4], etc. Indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conductive film has outstanding photoelectric properties compared with other materials [5,6] and, is the most widely used material in commerce, with a market share as high as 95%. The scarcity of indium resources, high deposition temperature, expensive preparation cost, and essentially inherent brittleness largely limits its application in flexible electronics devices [7,8,9]. Silver nanowire transparent conductive film (AgNWsTCF) is considered the best substitute for ITO because of its excellent optical transparency, excellent conductivity, and good mechanical flexibility [12,13,14].

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