High Chemical and Thermal Stability of Ag Nanowire‐Based Transparent Conductive Electrodes Induced by Electroless Ag Nanoparticle Decoration

Abstract

Although silver nanowires (AgNWs) are a promising material to replace indium tin oxide for use in transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs), they are easily degraded in contact with air and harsh environments due to surface corrosion and morphological instability. Herein, a facile approach is reported to improve both conductivity and stability of AgNW‐based TCEs (AG‐TCEs) in contact with atmospheric oxidation, water, alcoholic solutions, and acidic and alkaline environments without reducing their high transparency. This approach is based on very rapid electroless deposition of highly crystalline Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) on AgNWs, uniformly decorating the surface of AG‐TCEs at room temperature. Field‐emission scanning electron microscopic images reveal the formation of strong junctions between AgNWs induced by AgNPs. Exposing the resulting AG‐TCEs to HCl and NaOH solutions remarkably reduces their initial sheet resistance (Rs0), leading to ΔRs/Rs0 (%) of −26% and −37%, respectively. Moreover, decorated AG‐TCEs show high thermal stability after being annealed at 180 °C for 12 h.

Template-based electrodeposited nonmagnetic and magnetic metal nanowire arrays as building blocks of future nanoscale applications

“…Modern devices such as smartphone touch screens, ultrasmall transistors, smart glasses, smart watches, and organic photovoltaics will be required as necessary components in electronic industry, computers and telecommunications [187][188][189]. While indium tin oxide is commonly used in the industry as a transparent conductive material, efforts are being made to replace it with more robust and low-cost materials, including metal NW networks [190][191][192][193][194]. These have also provided high flexibility, mechanical stiffness, transparency and conductivity.…”

Printed Silver Nanowire-PEDOT:PSS Composite Electrodes for Flexible Transparent Microsupercapacitor Applications

“…Among explored nanomaterials, Ag NWs have already been commercialized in flexible electronic devices such as displays and organic light-emitting diodes as TCEs . However, their tendency toward electrochemical oxidation in electrolytes containing ions such as OH – , H + , SO 4 – , and Cl – and low specific capacitance impedes their applicability as SC electrodes. − One route to achieving high specific capacitance along with mechanical flexibility and prolonged lifetime is by using a composite of conducting polymers and nanomaterials. ,, Polymers serve as an effective ion-conducting layer and obviate the use of binders and additives in the fabrication process. − Incorporating polymers such as PEDOT:PSS, PANI, and polypyrrole with Ag NWs can help improve their electrochemical stability and specific capacitance. Ag NWs would act as a complementing material to enhance the conductivity of these polymers. ,, …”

Influence of tin oxide decoration on the junction conductivity of silver nanowires

“…A complete encapsulation of the NWs leads to a high junction resistance, as the metal cores are separated by the protective shell and the creation of welding structures is hindered. Nevertheless, the decoration of the NW surface allows creating conductive electrodes with high chemical and thermal stability [24]. Moreover, the optical properties of the NWs are maintained or can be even tailored by surface decoration, which is interesting for optoelectronic devices where the NW network is used as a electrode as well as plasmonic waveguide [25].…”

“…which A is the area of NW cross-section and l the distance between the two inner tips. In literature, single penta-twinned silver NW have already been measured resulting in resistivity values in the range of ρ NW = 4.5-8.7 × 10 −8 Ωm[24], slightly larger than the reported values of bulk silver ρ bulk = 1.6 × 10 −8 Ωm[29]. With our setup, we measured the resistance per μm of the reference silver NW and obtained a value of R singleNW (Ag) = 2.5 Ω μm −1 .…”