Copper Nanowire–Graphene Core–Shell Nanostructure for Highly Stable Transparent Conducting Electrodes

Abstract

A copper nanowire-graphene (CuNW-G) core-shell nanostructure was successfully synthesized using a low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process at temperatures as low as 400 °C for the first time. The CuNW-G core-shell nanostructure was systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. A transparent conducting electrode (TCE) based on the CuNW-G core-shell nanostructure exhibited excellent optical and electrical properties compared to a conventional indium tin oxide TCE. Moreover, it showed remarkable thermal oxidation and chemical stability because of the tight encapsulation of the CuNW with gas-impermeable graphene shells. The potential suitability of CuNW-G TCE was demonstrated by fabricating bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells. We anticipate that the CuNW-G core-shell nanostructure can be used as an alternative to conventional TCE materials for emerging optoelectronic devices such as flexible solar cells, displays, and touch panels.

High Stable, Transparent and Conductive ZnO/Ag/ZnO Nanofilm Electrodes on Rigid/Flexible Substrates

“…Nowadays, several alternative transparent electrodes have been reported, such as carbon nanotubes [5,6], grapheme [7,8], doped ZnO conducting films [9,10], conducting polymes [11,12], metal materials [13,14], etc. Currently, Ag nanomaterial is regarded as one of the most appealing transparent electrodes due to its excellent conductivity.…”

Smart electrochromic supercapacitors based on highly stable transparent conductive graphene/CuS network electrodes

“…It should be noted that G-Cu exhibited higher chemical stability than Ag network due to the fact that the graphene can retard the metallic TCEs to some extent oxidation in erosion solution. 20,45,46 Fig . 3F shows the corresponding photograph before and aer deposition of PANI lm, indicating that PANI can be only deposited on G-CuS TCE while almost no PANI was observed on the other three TCEs.…”

Nanomaterial-based stretchable and transparent electrodes

“…Thus, to solve these problems, a variety of reports have introduced stretchable and transparent electrodes with hybrid structures of CuNWs and other materials, such as carbon nanomaterials, conductive polymers, and metal-based materials [44,[47][48][49][50][51][52]. Graphene, a representative carbon nanomaterial, has high mechanical strength and thermal resistance and low water vapor and oxygen permeability [48][49][50]. Although graphene has high electron mobility, its carrier concentration is very low, and as such, it can hardly serve as a transparent electrode by itself.…”

“…Ahn et al reported CuNWs encapsulated with graphene (i.e. CuNW-graphene core-shell structure) [49]. Using lowtemperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (LT-PECVD), a CuNW-graphene core-shell nanostructure was obtained, as shown in Figure 2(f).…”