High-performance silver nanowires transparent conductive electrodes fabricated using manufacturing-ready high-speed photonic sinterization solutions

Abstract

On the long road towards low-cost flexible hybrid electronics, integration and printable solar energy harvesting solutions, there is an urgent need for high-performance transparent conductive electrodes produced using manufacturing-ready techniques and equipment. In recent years, randomly-distributed metallic nanowire-based transparent mesh electrodes have proven highly-promising as they offer a superb compromise between high performances and low fabrication costs. Unfortunately, these high figure-of-merit transparent mesh electrodes usually rely heavily on extensive post-deposition processing. While conventional thermal annealing yields good performances, it is especially ill-suited for deposition on low-temperature substrates or for high-throughput manufacturing solutions. Similarly, laser-induced annealing severely limits the processing time for electrodes covering large surfaces. In this paper, we report the fabrication of ultra high-performance silver nanowires-based transparent conductive electrodes fabricated using optimized manufacturing-ready ultrafast photonic curing solutions. Using conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) as our benchmark for transparent electrodes, we demonstrate a 2.6–2.7 $$\times $$ × performance gain using two different figure-of-merit indicators. Based on these results, we believe this research provides an ideal manufacturing-ready approach for the large-scale and low-cost fabrication of ultra high-performance transparent electrodes for flexible hybrid electronics and solar-energy harvesting applications.

Extensive Properties Investigation of AgNWs‐PEDOT:PSS Based Transparent Conductive Electrode for Ultraflexible Organic Photodetector Applications

“…Furthermore, in order to evaluate the optimal trade-off between the optical and electrical properties of the hybrid electrode, we calculated the figure of merit (FOM) value, [44,68] which is the electrical-to-optical conductivity ratio defined by:…”

“…Furthermore, in order to evaluate the optimal trade‐off between the optical and electrical properties of the hybrid electrode, we calculated the figure of merit (FOM) value, [ 44,68 ] which is the electrical‐to‐optical conductivity ratio defined by: $$$$\begin{equation}FOM = \frac{{{\sigma }_{{\mathrm{DC}}}}}{{{\sigma }_{{\mathrm{OP}}}}}\end{equation}$$$$Where σ DC is the direct current electrical conductivity and σ OP is the optical conductivity of the transparent film. Furthermore, the transmittance and the $${\sigma}_{OP}$$ are related according to the following equation: $$$$\begin{equation}T = {\left( {1 + \frac{{{Z}_0}}{2}{\sigma }_{{\mathrm{OP}}} \times t} \right)}^{ - 2}\end{equation}$$$$Where T is the transmittance value corresponding to the wavelength at 550 nm, t is the thickness of the transparent film and Z 0 is the impedence of free space whose value is 377 Ω.…”

“…[ 40 ] On the other hand, one of the major drawbacks of using AgNWs as TCEs is that the electrical conduction of the AgNWs is affected by the junction resistance or contact resistance [ 41 ] between the nanowires and the packing density. [ 42 ] Though the packing density could be optimized by tuning the film thickness of AgNWs thin films, the reduction of junction resistance involves several complex processing conditions that include high‐temperature annealing, [ 43 ] photonic curing, [ 44 ] electron‐beam induced welding, [ 45 ] plasmonic welding, [ 46 ] soldering [ 47 ] and focused ion‐beam welding, [ 48 ] to weld the junctions of these nanowires. Most of these techniques are critical and include high‐temperature processing conditions (>180 °C) and the local heating caused during the process may critically damage the vulnerable ultrathin plastic substrates such as parylene‐C underneath the electrode and hence limit the practical application of AgNWs as efficient TCEs.…”

Multiobjective Optimization of Silver-Nanowire Deposition for Flexible Transparent Conducting Electrodes

“…As described in detail in the Supporting Information, AgNWs (Figure S1) in ethanol were spin-coated onto PET substrates. After spin coating, the AgNW layer is sintered by photonic curing , using conditions held constant for this study. Processing involves three variables: AgNW concentration (mg/mL), spin-coating speed (rpm), and dispense volume (μL), which form a vector X = [concentration, spin speed, volume] in a three-dimensional input parameter space.…”

Breathable, Flexible, Transparent, Hydrophobic, and Biotic Sustainable Electrodes for Heating and Biopotential Signal Measurement Applications

“…[15] Several applications, e.g., in wearable electronics and biomedical engineering domains, require a high level of optical transparency. [22] Therefore, transparent conductive layers with high electrical conductivity are highly demanded. Moreover, the higher surface coverage in self-repeated designs allows for increasing the loading number of functional materials (e.g., Ag nanowires) and contains numerous charge-transfer paths compared to flat surfaces, which maximizes the electrical conductivity accordingly.…”