Recent Progress in Silver and Copper Nanowire Flexible Transparent Conductors

Abstract

There is an on-going drive to replace traditional transparent conducting electrode (TCE), indium tin oxide (ITO), as its brittleness and scarcity, and to meet the development of flexible and wearable electronics. Metal nanowires, typically Ag and Cu nanowires (NWs), are of particular interest for optoelectronic applications as the next-generation flexible, stretchable and transparent conductive electrodes due to their excellent mechanical and electrical properties. It is necessary to develop a facile route to produce well-defined metal nanowires for their large scale production and commercialization. Among a variety of processes that used to prepare Cu NWs and Ag NWs, solution synthesis was considered to be a promising approach due to the precursors are abundant and the morphology and structure of the product could be modulated by tuning reaction conditions. Herein, we highlight the review of latest developed strategies based on published patents and researches to prepare Ag NWs and Cu NWs with particular discussion on flexible and transparent conductors based on their percolating networks. The applications of these flexible transparent conductors with future research perspectives and challenges are also concluded and discussed. Keywords: Applications, copper nanowire, flexible transparent conductors, properties, silver nanowire, synthesis.