Highly Robust Silver Nanowire Network for Transparent Electrode

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• 作者：Tze-Bin Song ; You Seung Rim ; Fengmin Liu ; Brion Bob ; Shenglin Ye ; Yao-Tsung Hsieh ; Yang Yang
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：November 11, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：7
• 期：44
• 页码：24601-24607
• 全文大小：452K
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

Solution-processed silver nanowire networks are one of the promising candidates to replace a traditional indium tin oxide as next-generation transparent and flexible electrodes due to their ease of processing, moderate flexibility, high transparency, and low sheet resistance. To date, however, high stability of the nanowire networks remains a major challenge because the long-term usages of these electrodes are limited by their poor thermal and chemical stabilities. Existing methods for addressing this challenge mainly focus on protecting the nanowire network with additional layers that require vacuum processes, which can lead to an increment in manufacturing cost. Here, we report a straightforward strategy of a sol鈥揼el processing as a fast and robust way to improve the stabilities of silver nanowires. Compared with reported nanoparticles embedded in nanowire networks, better thermal and chemical stabilities are achieved via sol鈥揼el coating of TiO₂ over the silver nanowire networks. The conformal surface coverage suppressed surface diffusion of silver atoms and prevented chemical corrosion from the environment. These results highlight the important role of the functional layer in providing better thermal and chemical stabilities along with improved electrical properties and mechanical robustness. The silver nanowire/TiO₂ composite electrodes were applied as the source and drain electrodes for In₂O₃ thin-film transistors (TFTs) and the devices exhibited improved electrical performance annealed at 300 掳C without the degradation of the electrodes. These key findings not only demonstrated a general and effective method to improve the thermal and chemical stabilities of metal nanowire networks but also provided a basic guideline toward rational design of highly efficient and robust composite electrodes.