Chemically Welding Silver Nanowires toward Transferable and Flexible Transparent Electrodes in Heaters and Double-Sided Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are important materials for flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs). However, the loose stacking of nanowire junctions greatly affects the electric conductivity across adjacent nanowires. Soldering can effectively reduce the wire−wire contact resistance of AgNWs by epitaxially depositing nanosolders at the junctions, but the process normally needs to be performed with high energy consumption. In this work, we proposed a simple room-temperature method to achieve precise welding of junctions by adjusting the wettability of the soldered precursor solution on the surfaces of AgNWs. The nanoscale welding at nanowire cross junctions forms efficient conductive networks. Furthermore, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was used to improve the stability of FTEs by wrapping the rGO around the AgNW surface. The obtained FTE shows a figure-of-merit (FoM) of up to 439.3 (6.5 Ω/sq at a transmittance of 88%) and has significant bending stability and environmental and acidic stability. A flexible transparent heater was successfully constructed, which could reach up to 160 °C within a short response time (43 s) and exhibit excellent switching stability. When laminating this FTE onto half perovskite solar cells as the top electrodes, the obtained double-side devices achieved power conversion efficiencies as high as 16.15% and 13.91% from each side, pointing out a convenient method for fabricating double-sided photovoltaic devices.

Mechanical Durability and Flexibility in Perovskite Photovoltaics: Advancements and Applications

“…i) Relative resistance variation of a CW-AgNW as a function of the number of bending cycles. Reproduced with permission [186]. Copyright 2023, American Chemical Society.…”

Recent advances of carbon nanotubes in perovskite solar cells

“…164,165 However, since most high-efficiency f-PSCs are generally fabricated with ITO electrodes, their fragilities and costs are major issues hindering the commercialization of f-PSCs. Numerous electrodes with the high transparent conductivity and flexibility, such as metal nanowires, 166 carbon nanomaterials, 49,167 and conductive polymers, 168 have been developed to substitute ITO electrodes in f-PSCs. Among these electrodes, one-dimensional CNTs with conjugated double bonds endow outstanding charge-transport characteristics and extraordinary mechanical properties.…”

Metallic Micro‐Nano Network‐Based Soft Transparent Electrodes: Materials, Processes, and Applications

“…[ 214 , 215 ] Additionally, the curvature of deposited NWS can be tailored through different dispensing approaches. While spin‐coated nanowires tend to straighten during the spin‐coating process, [ 200 ] sprayed nanowires and electrospun nanofibers exhibit a curly state after coating, demonstrating excellent reliability against mechanical bending and stretching. [ 190 ] This concept applies to other MMNNs as well, where a deliberate wavy micro/nanostructure design plays a crucial role in enhancing the flexibility and stretchability of the soft electrode.…”