Optical properties for flexible and transparent silver nanowires electrodes with different diameters

Abstract

The current study describes the advanced optical properties of silver nanowires (AgNWs) with different morphology synthesized by the polyol method. AgNWs were characterized by Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy. The relation between AgNWs diameter and its optical properties has been discussed extensively. Moreover, the energy gap of AgNWs as a suspension solution and as a thin film coated on polyethylene (PE) transparent sheets with an average sheet resistance of 40.7 Ω/sq has also been studied. The values of the optical energy gap obtained according to Tauc's model was ranged from 2.06 eV to 2.19eV and from 2.06 eV to 2.8 eV for AgNWs suspension solution and thin-film samples, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that the calculated energy gap values were decreased with increasing of the diameter of AgNWs. For suspension solutions of different AgNWs with average diameters of 105.4 nm, 66.5 nm and 42.78 nm, the corresponding calculated dielectric constants were 11.9, 13.15 and 13.6, respectively. Dielectric values for AgNWs thin film samples were found to be higher than AgNWs suspension samples. Accordingly, these small values of optical dielectric constants are potentially appropriate for the manufacturing of optoelectronic and sensing devices.