Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks have demonstrated high optical and electrical properties, even better than those of indium tin oxide thin films, and are expected to be a next-generation transparent conducting electrode (TCE). Enhanced electrical and optical properties are achieved when the diameter of the AgNWs in the network is fairly small, that is, typically less than 30 nm. However, when AgNWs with such small diameters are used in the network, stability issues arise. One method to resolve the stability issues is to increase the diameter of the AgNWs, but the use of AgNWs with large diameters has the disadvantage of causing a rough surface morphology. In this work, we resolve all of the aforementioned issues with AgNW TCEs by the electrodeposition of Ag onto as-spin-coated thin AgNW TCEs. The electrodeposition of Ag offers many advantages, including the precise adjustment of the AgNW diameter and wire-to-wire welding to improve the junction conductance while minimizing the increase in protrusion height because of the overlap of AgNWs upon increasing the diameter. In addition, Ag electrodeposition on AgNW TCEs can provide higher conductance than that of as-spin-coated AgNW TCEs at the same transparency because of the reduced junction resistance, which generates a superior figure of merit. We applied the electrodeposited (ED) AgNW network to a Cu­(In,Ga)­Se2 thin-film solar cell and compared the device performance to a device with a standard sputtered transparent conducting oxide (TCO). The cell fabricated by the electrodeposition method showed nearly equal performance to that of a cell with the sputtered TCO. We expect that ED AgNW networks can be used as high-performance and robust TCEs for various optoelectronic applications.

The surface of polyimide (PI) was modified with He/O2/NF3 dielectric barrier discharge generated by 13.56 MHz r.f. at atmospheric pressure in order to improve adhesion between metal (Cu/Cr) and PI. He/O2/NF3 plasma severely etched the surface of PI and formed many conical clusters of below 100 nm diameter on the PI surface. The surface roughness of PI was increased from 0.4 to 11 nm with r.f. power. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that oxygen concentration was increased as much as the decrease of carbon concentration after plasma treatment. XPS analysis also showed that the component ratio of CO bonding, which is a hydrophilic functional group, was increased about 30% by the plasma treatment as compared with untreated PI. T‐peel test showed that peel strength was increased with r.f. power. The highest peel strength was 148 gf · nm−1, which was about 50 times as high as the peel strength obtained without plasma activation. It is more than two times as strong as the adhesion between the Cu/Cr film and PI substrate treated by O2 plasma. The surface morphology and chemical composition of the detached side of the PI treated by He/O2/NF3 plasma were similar to untreated PI.

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Summary: DBD generated by mid‐frequency AC (30 kHz) at atmospheric pressure was used for the degradation of EDTA in aqueous solution. The concentration of EDTA was measured by HPLC and TOC analysis. More than 90% of EDTA (initial concentration of 0.2 wt.‐%) was decomposed by DBD degradation, and the TOC content was reduced to below 60% of the initial value within one hour. The reaction was faster at high plasma generation voltages. At an applied voltage of 14 kV, 50% of EDTA was degraded by DBD degradation in only 10 min.