Transparent electrodes have been widely used in electronic devices such as solar cells, displays, and touch screens. Highly flexible transparent electrodes are especially desired for the development of next generation flexible electronic devices. Although indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most commonly used material for the fabrication of transparent electrodes, its brittleness and growing cost limit its utility for flexible electronic devices. Therefore, the need for new transparent conductive materials with superior mechanical properties is clear and urgent. Ag nanowire (AgNW) has been attracting increasing attention because of its effective combination of electrical and optical properties. However, it still suffers from several drawbacks, including large surface roughness, instability against oxidation and moisture, and poor adhesion to substrates. These issues need to be addressed before wide spread use of metallic NW as transparent electrodes can be realized. In this study, we demonstrated the fabrication of a flexible transparent electrode with superior mechanical, electrical and optical properties by embedding a AgNW film into a transparent polymer matrix. This technique can produce electrodes with an ultrasmooth and extremely deformable transparent electrode that have sheet resistance and transmittance comparable to those of an ITO electrode.

Organic solar cells with inverted structures can greatly improve photovoltaic stability. This paper reports a method to lower the work function of indium tin oxide (ITO) in inverted organic solar cells by modification with ultrathin 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) monolayers. The device studies showed that the resulting photovoltaic efficiencies were significantly increased from 0.64% to 4.83% with the use of the APTES monolayer, which could be attributed to the dramatic enhancement in the open-circuit voltage and fill factor. The effective electron selectivity in the case of the APTES-modified ITO could be attributed to the reduction of the work function of ITO as a result of the electron-donating nature of the amine groups in the APTES monolayer. The power conversion efficiency of the unencapsulated inverted organic solar cells with APTES-modified ITO remained above 80% of their original values even after storage in air for thirty days. Our results provide a promising approach to improve the performance of highly efficient and air-stable inverted organic solar cells.