A hybrid approach for the realization of In-free transparent conductive layers based on a composite of a mesh of silver nanowires (NWs) and a conductive metal-oxide is demonstrated. As metal-oxide room-temperature-processed sol-gel SnO x or Al:ZnO prepared by low-temperature (100 ° C) atomic layer deposition is used, respectively. In this concept, the metal-oxide is intended to fuse the wires together and also to "glue" them to the substrate. As a result, a low sheet resistance down to 5.2 Ω sq −1 is achieved with a concomitant average transmission of 87%. The adhesion of the NWs to the substrate is signifi cantly improved and the resulting composites withstand adhesion tests without loss in conductivity. Owing to the low processing temperatures, this concept allows highly robust, highly conductive, and transparent coatings even on top of temperature sensitive objects, for example, polymer foils, organic devices. These Indium-and PEDOT:PSS-free hybrid layers are successfully implemented as transparent top-electrodes in effi cient allsolution-processed semitransparent organic solar cells. It is obvious that this approach is not limited to organic solar cells but will generally be applicable in devices which require transparent electrodes.
To overcome the limits of indium‐based transparent conductive materials, transparent conductive layers based on a composite of silver nanowires embedded in a conductive metal‐oxide are a promising alternative presented on page 1671 by T. Riedl and co‐workers. The metal‐oxide conductively joins the wires at their junctions and also ‘glues’ them to the substrate. A record‐low sheet resistance down to 5.2 Ohm/sq. is achieved with a concomitant average transmission of 87% for a composite prepared at room‐temperature.
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