Open AccessHighly transparent and conductive electrodes enabled by scalable printing-and-sintering of silver nanowires
Author(s) -
Weiwei Li,
Emre Yarali,
Azamat Bakytbekov,
Thomas D. Anthopoulos,
Atif Shamim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nanotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.926
H-Index - 203
eISSN - 1361-6528
pISSN - 0957-4484
DOI - 10.1088/1361-6528/ab9c53
Subject(s) - materials science , transparency (behavior) , fabrication , inkwell , scalability , optical transparency , nanotechnology , electrical conductor , optoelectronics , nanowire , flexible electronics , wearable technology , sheet resistance , transparent conducting film , sintering , electrode , wearable computer , computer science , thin film , composite material , layer (electronics) , medicine , alternative medicine , computer security , pathology , database , embedded system , chemistry
Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) have good promised for flexible and transparent electronics. However, It remains an open question on how to achieve large-scale printing of Ag NWs with high optical transparency, electrical conductivity, and mechanical durability for practical applications, though extensive research has been conducted for more than a decade. In this work, we propose a possible solution that integrates screen printing of Ag NWs with flash-light sintering (FLS). We demonstrate that the use of low-concentration, screen-printable Ag NW ink enables large-area and high-resolution patterning of Ag NWs. A critical advantage comes from the FLS process that allows low-temperature processing, short operational time, and high output rate—characteristics that fit the scalable manufacturing. Importantly, we show that the resultant Ag NW patterns feature low sheet resistance (1.1–9.2 Ohm sq −1 ), high transparency (75.2–92.6%), and thus a remarkable figure of merit comparable to state of the art. These outstanding properties of Ag NW patterns, together with the scalable fabrication method we propose, would facilitate many Ag NW-based applications, such as transparent heaters, stretchable displays, and wearable devices; here, we demonstrate the novel design of flexible and transparent radio frequency 5G antennas.