Ice‐Templated, Large‐Area Silver Nanowire Pattern for Flexible Transparent Electrode. (15th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Han, Jingkai; Yang, Jiankui; Gao, Weiwei; Bai, Hao
• Is Part Of: Advanced functional materials. Volume 31:Number 16(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-02-15
• Subjects: flexible transparent electrodes -- ice‐templating -- silver nanowire patterns -- skin‐like sensors -- touch screen; Materials -- Periodicals; Chemical vapor deposition -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202010155
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1616-301X

Abstract

Abstract: Flexible transparent electrodes are critically important for the emerging flexible and stretchable electronic and optoelectronic devices. To this end, transparent polymer films coated with silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been intensively studied in the past decade. However, it remains a grand challenge to achieve both high conductivity and transmittance in large‐area films, mainly due to the poor alignment of AgNWs and their high junction resistance. Here, the successful attempt to realize large‐area AgNW patterns on various substrates by a 2D ice‐templating approach is reported. With a relatively low dosage of AgNWs (4 µg·cm −2 ), the resulted flexible electrode simultaneously achieves high optical transmittance (≈91%) and low sheet resistance (20 Ω·sq −1 ). In addition, the electrode exhibits excellent durability during cyclic bending (≈10 000 times) and stretching (50% strain). The potential applications of the flexible transparent electrode in both touch screen and electronic skin sensor, which can monitor the sliding pressure and direction in real‐time, are demonstrated. More importantly, it is believed that the study represents a facile and low‐cost approach to assemble various nanomaterials into large‐area functional patterns for advanced flexible devices. Abstract : A 2D ice‐templating approach has been developed to assemble silver nanowires (AgNW) into large‐area patterns for a high‐performance flexible transparent electrode. The excellent alignment of the AgNW pattern provides a high contact area, yielding a high optical transmittance (≈91%) and low sheet resistance (20 Ω sq −1 ) simultaneously with a relatively low dosage of AgNWs (4 µg cm −2 ). This 2D ice‐templating approach is versatile enough to assemble various building blocks into large‐area patterns with designable topology and function, which are strongly demanded for advanced electronic devices.