Abstract
The past few years have seen a considerable amount of research devoted to nanostructured transparent conducting materials (TCM), which play a pivotal role in many modern devices such as solar cells, flexible light-emitting devices, touch screens, electromagnetic devices, and flexible transparent thin film heaters. Currently, the most commonly used TCM for such applications (ITO: Indium Tin oxide) suffers from two major drawbacks: brittleness and indium scarcity. Among emerging transparent electrodes, silver nanowire (AgNW) networks appear to be a promising substitute to ITO since such electrically percolating networks exhibit excellent properties with sheet resistance lower than 10 Ω/sq and optical transparency of 90%, fulfilling the requirements of most applications. In addition, AgNW networks also exhibit very good mechanical flexibility. The fabrication of these electrodes involves low-temperature processing steps and scalable methods, thus making them appropriate for future use as low-cost transparent electrodes in flexible electronic devices. This contribution aims to briefly present the main properties of AgNW based transparent electrodes as well as some considerations relating to their efficient integration in devices. The influence of network density, nanowire sizes, and post treatments on the properties of AgNW networks will also be evaluated. In addition to a general overview of AgNW networks, we focus on two important aspects: (i) network instabilities as well as an efficient Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) coating which clearly enhances AgNW network stability and (ii) modelling to better understand the physical properties of these networks.
Highlights
A considerable amount of research has been devoted lately to nanostructured transparent conducting materials, which play a pivotal role in many modern devices [1,2,3,4] such as solar cells [5,6], flexible light-emitting devices [7], touch screens, electromagnetic devices, and flexible transparent thin film heaters [8,9,10,11]
This work aims to present the main properties of metallic nanowire (MNW) networks, network stability is considered and a method to enhance it is presented in part 3, while simulations and semi-empirical modelling of MNW networks are discussed in part 4, to better understand their physical properties
Network is only increased by a few percent even after 60 repeated bending cycles, showing good response under the bending tests. Such flexible properties have been used in flexible light-emitting electrochemical cells in which an AgNW network was embedded in a polyurethane optical adhesive to serve as a transparent electrode [51]
Summary
A considerable amount of research has been devoted lately to nanostructured transparent conducting materials, which play a pivotal role in many modern devices [1,2,3,4] such as solar cells [5,6], flexible light-emitting devices [7], touch screens, electromagnetic devices, and flexible transparent thin film heaters [8,9,10,11]. The most commonly used material for such applications, ITO (indium tin oxide), suffers from two major drawbacks: indium scarcity and brittleness. Several emerging transparent electrodes (TE) have been studied lately including grapheme [3], carbon nanotubes [3], metallic grids [12], and metallic nanowire (MNW) networks [13,14,15]. Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks appear to be promising substitutes for ITO since these percolating networks exhibit excellent properties with sheet resistances of a few Ω/sq associated to optical transmittances of. MNW networks exhibit very good electro-mechanical properties [13] which are key assets for addressing emerging flexible electronics applications. The fabrication of these electrodes involves low-temperature process steps and upscaling methods, such as spray deposition, making them very appropriate for future use as TE in flexible device fabrication compatible with, for instance, roll-to-roll processing [17]
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