Transparent conductive film (TCF) fabricated with silver nanowires (AgNWs) is one of the most promising candidates to replace the state-of-the-art indium tin oxide films as electrodes in next generation flexible displays. The adhesion of AgNWs on a substrate is one of the key limiting factors that influence the yield and quality of downstream products. Inserting an adhesive interlayer between the substrate and AgNWs complicates the fabrication process and may worsen the uniformity of the films. Herein, we report a self-adhesive coating ink that can realize tight adhesion of AgNWs on the substrate. The ink consists of AgNWs and sodium alginate. TCFs coated with the ink exhibit a strong adhesion on the substrate, and no delamination is observed after peeling with 3 M tape, long-time immersion in a solvent, ultrasonicating in a water bath, or multiple bending to a small radius. The optoelectronic performance of TCFs after the aforementioned treatments remains constant and is superior to those reported in the literature. The self-adhesive coating ink makes delamination-free AgNW TCFs possible.

Silver nanowires are susceptible to degradation under ultraviolet (UV) light illumination. Encapsulating silver nanowire transparent conductive films (AgNW TCFs) with UV shielding materials usually result in the increasing of the sheet resistance or the decrease of the visible light transparency. Herein, we combine a reducing species (FeSO4) and a thin layer (overcoating) of UV shielding material to solve the stability and the optical performance issues simultaneously. The AgNW TCFs show excellent stability under continuous UV light illumination for 14 h, and their sheet resistance varies only 6%. The dramatic enhancement of the stability against UV light illumination for as-obtained TCFs will make them viable for real-world applications in touch panels and displays.

Generation of particle by-products during the synthesis of ultrathin silver nanowires can be suppressed via eliminating water in a precursor mixing step.

To explore a simple and efficient way to fabricate thin film electrodes on flexible substrates is highly desired because of its high promising application in optoelectronics. Transfer printing technique plays a key role in the fabrication of flexible electrodes from conventional substrates to flexible substrates. Unfortunately, a simple, room temperature, environmental-friendly and reusable transfer printing technique still remains challenging. Here we demonstrated a novel water-based wet-transfer printing technique that is simple, room temperature, environmental-friendly and reusable by taking advantage of the adjustment of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding between thin film and substrates. This effective and practical transfer technique may provide an effective route to develop electronic flexible devices with high performance.

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