Tailoring the Aqueous Synthesis and Deposition of Copper Nanowires for Transparent Electrodes and Heaters

Abstract

Due to the high abundance of copper on the earth and its high intrinsic electrical conductivity, copper nanowires (CuNWs) represent a promising material for transparent electrodes. In this work, an environmentally friendly and scalable synthesis that requires a low process temperature is studied. The optimum temperature is found at 79 °C, which results in nanowires with the lowest diameters. The as‐synthesized solution is sprayed to transparent conducting films, which are in turn subjected to various post‐treatments such as thermal sintering or washing with propionic acid to enhance their electro‐optical performance. Following both the optimum protocol for the synthesis and post‐treatment, a sheet resistance of 10.3 Ω ◻−1 at a transparency of 83.4% is achieved. Moreover, the CuNW‐films are tested as transparent heaters and show a homogeneous heat distribution. For the electrical properties of the films, a temperature dependence of resistance that is lowered around 28% compared to the one for bulk copper is found.

Comprehensive Synthesis Study of Well-Dispersed and Solution-Processed Metal Nanowires for Transparent Heaters

“…At a power density of around 0.40 W/cm 2 , which corresponds to a temperature of 150 ∘ C, the CuNW-based heater turns nonconductive and fails. As studied for the case of thermal annealing of CuNWfilms under ambient air in an earlier work, this failure can be explained by a temperature-induced oxidation that becomes pronounced for temperatures above 150 ∘ C [27]. This degradation mechanism has also been reported by Zhai et al for CuNW-films under current flows that correspond to temperatures above 80 ∘ C [83].…”

“…CuNWs were synthesized and spray-deposited to TCEs, in accordance with recently published work [27].…”

Accommodation of Silicon in an Interconnected Copper Network for Robust Li‐Ion Storage

“…However, the C‐SCP electrode in this work maintained a stable cycling performance for 280 cycles (Figure 5e), which suggests that the CCI retain its structure integrity as well as efficient electron collection with the presence of high stress. Considering the high abundance in crust (over 21 billion tons) and low‐cost of copper (5.9 USD kg −1 ), the C‐SCP electrode material holds great promise for industry scale applications 40…”

Screen‐Printed, Low‐Cost, and Patterned Flexible Heater Based on Ag Fractal Dendrites for Human Wearable Application

“…Currently, various printed electronic techniques have been applied to manufacture flexible resistance heaters, such as bar coating . spin coating, spray printing, and transfer printing . However, these techniques are either expensive or unsuitable for large‐scale fabrication, resulting in high costs finally.…”

“…Up to now, various conductive materials have been developed by researchers for realizing the optimal performance of the printed flexible resistance heaters. Traditional conductive materials, such as metallic nanowires (NWs), carbon nanotube (CNT),graphene, conductive polymers, and other hybrid materials, are widely used in flexible resistance heaters. However, conventional CNT, graphene, and conductive polymers poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT: PSS) feature the disadvantage of high resistance, which means high input voltage is required to reach the same heating saturation temperature.…”