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We have proposed and investigated a model of drying colloidal suspension drop placed onto a horizontal substrate in which the sol to gel phase transition occurs. The temporal evolution of volume fraction of the solute and the gel phase dynamics were obtained from numerical simulations. Our model takes into account the fact that some physical quantities are dependent on volume fraction of the colloidal particles.

Four samples of transparent conductive films with different numbers of silver nanorings per unit area were produced. The sheet resistance, transparency, and haze were measured for each sample. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we studied the electrical conductivity of random resistor networks produced by the random deposition of the conducting rings onto the substrate. Both systems of equal-sized rings, and systems with rings of different sizes were simulated. Our simulations demonstrated the linear dependence of the electrical conductivity on the number of rings per unit area. Size dispersity decreased the percolation threshold, but without having any other significant effect on the behavior of the electrical conductance. Analytical estimations obtained for dense systems of equal-sized conductive rings were consistent with the simulations.

The electrical conductivity of two-dimensional films filled with rodlike particles (rods) was simulated by the Monte Carlo method. The main attention has been paid to the investigation of the effect of the rod alignment on the electrical properties of the films. Both continuous and lattice approaches were used. Intersections of particles were forbidden. Our main findings are (i) both models demonstrate similar behaviors, (ii) at low concentration of rods, both approaches lead to the same dependencies of the electrical conductivity on the concentration of the rods, (iii) the alignment of the rods essentially affects the electrical conductivity, (iv) at some concentrations of partially aligned rods, the films may be conducting only in one direction, and (v) the films may simultaneously be both highly transparent and electrically anisotropic.

Using Monte Carlo simulation, we studied the electrical conductance of two-dimensional films. The films consisted of a poorly conductive host matrix and highly conductive rodlike fillers (rods). The rods were of various lengths, obeying a log-normal distribution. They were allowed to be aligned along a given direction. The impacts of the length dispersity and the extent of the rod alignment on the insulator-to-conductor phase transition were studied. Two alternative computational approaches were compared. Within Model I, the films were transformed into resistor networks with regular structures and randomly distributed conductances. Within Model II, the films were transformed into resistor networks with irregular structures but with equal conductivities of the conductors. A comparison of the models evidenced similar behavior in both models when the concentration of fillers exceeded the percolation threshold. However, a fairly fine mesh should be used in Model I to obtain a reasonable estimation of the electrical conductance. The electrical conductance is slightly overestimated in Model I. In anisotropic systems, the length dispersity of fillers has a more pronounced effect on the electrical conductance along the direction of the rod alignment. Some analytical results were obtained: (i) the relationship between the number of fillers per unit area and the transmittance of the films within Model I and (ii) the electrical conductance of the films for dense networks within Model II.

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We have studied the electrical conductivity of nanoring-based, transparent conductive films, these being promising elements for flexible electronic devices. Both the wire resistance and the junction resistance were taken into account. We have calculated the dependency of the electrical conductivity on the number density of the rings. We have proposed a mean-field approach to estimate the dependency of the electrical conductivity on the main parameters. Comparison of direct computations of the electrical conductivity and the estimates provided by the mean-field approach evidenced the applicability of this approach for those cases where the wire resistance dominates over the junction resistance and where both resistances are of the same order. For these two cases, both the direct computations and the mean-field approach evidenced a linear dependence of the electrical conductivity of the films on the number density of the conductive rings. By contrast, the dependence of the electrical conductivity on the number density of the conductive rings is quadratic when the junction resistance dominates over the wire resistance. In this case, the mean-field approach significantly overestimates the electrical conductivity since the main assumptions underlying this approach are no longer fulfilled.