Novel Concept for Fabricating a Flexible Transparent Electrode Using the Simple and Scalable Self-Assembly of Ag Nanowires

Abstract

We introduce a new concept for transparent electrodes via the self-assembly of a silver nanowire (Ag NW) network with a cell shape. A transparent conductive network was achieved by forming an array of Ag NWs around droplets of a solvent with higher vapor pressure in Ag NWs ink. The difference in vapor pressure and viscosity of the solvent causes an Ag NWs network with a cell shape, and the cell size can be easily controlled from 10 to 100 μm using the solvent ratio. The cell network of Ag NWs with a high optical transmittance (>92%) and low sheet resistance (40 Ω/sq) was simply fabricated on flexible polymer films of large scale using a Meyer rod coating. In addition, we also studied and demonstrated the figure of merit of the transparent electrode between our method and a random Ag NWs network from the general method. The performance of the transparent electrode may be applied to a wide array of optoelectronic devices and can replace transparent conductive oxides such as Al-doped ZnO and indium tin oxide.