ENHANCEMENT OF ELECTRICAL PROPERTY OF SILVER NANOWIRE TRANSPARENT CONDUCTIVE ELECTRODE

Abstract

Metal nanowire transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) are promising candidates to replace traditional indium tin oxide in next-generation flexible transparent electrodes. However, the performance of these electrodes is limited by the high contact resistance between the nanowires, which is still a challenge to improve these contact points. Methods of reducing contact resistance require a high source of energy, long periods of time or add chemicals, which can lead to increased production costs and damage to the underlying substrate or equipment. Here, we introduce the low energy consumption method to improve the electrical properties between metal nanowires through the impulse voltage source system. The contacts were melted and the silver nanowires (AgNWs) were welded together through the effect of heat. The resulting individual AgNWs turn into a well-conductive AgNWs network. The sheet resistance decreased from 72.6 to 29.7 Ω/sq while the transmission remained at 92% at the wavelength of 550nm. This shows that the farbricated AgNW TCEs have great potential for applications in optoelectronic devices.