This work describes a process to make anodes for organic solar cells from copper-nickel nanowires with solution-phase processing. Copper nanowire films were coated from solution onto glass and made conductive by dipping them in acetic acid. Acetic acid removes the passivating oxide from the surface of copper nanowires, thereby reducing the contact resistance between nanowires to nearly the same extent as hydrogen annealing. Films of copper nanowires were made as oxidation resistant as silver nanowires under dry and humid conditions by dipping them in an electroless nickel plating solution. Organic solar cells utilizing these completely solution-processed copper-nickel nanowire films exhibited efficiencies of 4.9%.
This article describes a room-temperature solution-phase process for the synthesis of copper−silver (Cu−Ag), copper−gold (Cu−Au), and copper−platinum (Cu−Pt) core−shell nanowires (NWs) in which ascorbic acid removes the passivating copper oxide coating from the Cu NWs and reduces noble metal ions onto the Cu NWs while preventing galvanic replacement. Cu−Ag NWs are conductive as printed, and the resulting NW films exhibit optoelectronic properties equivalent to films of Ag NWs with a similar aspect ratio. Unlike Cu NWs, Cu−Ag NWs were resistant to oxidation in dry air at 160°C and under humid conditions (85% RH) at 85°C for 24 h.
Nanowire networks are promising memristive architectures for neuromorphic applications due to their connectivity and neurosynaptic-like behaviours. Here, we demonstrate a self-similar scaling of the conductance of networks and the junctions that comprise them. We show this behavior is an emergent property of any junction-dominated network. A particular class of junctions naturally leads to the emergence of conductance plateaus and a “winner-takes-all” conducting path that spans the entire network, and which we show corresponds to the lowest-energy connectivity path. The memory stored in the conductance state is distributed across the network but encoded in specific connectivity pathways, similar to that found in biological systems. These results are expected to have important implications for development of neuromorphic devices based on reservoir computing.
The synthesis of metal nanostructures usually requires a capping agent that is generally thought to cause anisotropic growth by blocking the addition of atoms to specific crystal facets. This work uses a series of electrochemical measurements with a quartz crystal microbalance and single-crystal electrodes to elucidate the facet-selective chemistry occurring in the synthesis of Cu nanowires. Contrary to prevailing hypotheses, ethylenediamine, a so-called capping agent in the synthesis of Cu nanowires, causes anisotropic growth by increasing the rate of atomic addition to (111) facets at the end of a growing nanowire relative to (100) facets on the sides of a nanowire. Ethylenediamine increases the reduction rate of Cu(OH) on a Cu(111) surface relative to Cu(100) by selectively inhibiting the formation of Cu oxide on Cu(111). This work demonstrates how studying facet-selective electrochemistry can improve the understanding of the processes by which atoms assemble to form anisotropic metal nanostructures.
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