Novel transparent conductor with enhanced conductivity: hybrid of silver nanowires and dual-doped graphene

Abstract

We present hybrid transparent conducting films based on silver nanowires (Ag NWs) and doped graphene through novel dual co-doping method by applying various dopants (HNO3 or Au for p-doping and N2H4 for n-doping) on top and bottom sides of graphene. We systematically investigated the effect of dual-doping on their surface as well as electrical and optical properties of graphene and Ag NW/graphene hybrid films through the combination study with various dopant types (p/p, p/n, n/p, and n/n). We found that the p/p-type dual-doped (p-type dopant: HNO3) graphene and its hybrid formation with Ag NWs appeared to be the most effective in enhancing the electrical properties of conductor (doped graphene with ΔR/R0=84% and Ag NW/doped graphene hybrid with ΔR/R0=62%), demonstrating doped monolayer graphene with high optical transmittance (TT=97.4%), and sheet resistance (Rs=188Ω/sq.). We also note that dual-doping improved such electrical properties without any significant debilitation of optical transparency of conductors (doped graphene with ΔTT=0.1% and Ag NW/doped graphene hybrid with ΔTT=0.4%). In addition, the enhanced conductivity of p-type dual-doped graphene allows a hybrid system to form co-percolating network in which Ag NWs can form a secondary conductive path at grain boundaries of polycrystalline graphene.