Smoothing silver nanowires for optoelectronic applications

Abstract

Silver nanowire meshes have shown potential for becoming a more robust, flexible alternative to traditional ceramic and brittle metal oxides. However, the current methods employed at making these films are not scalable and the high aspect ratios limit their final use. Spray coating is a technique that is widely used in many industries and has proven effective in many coating applications but continues to be limited by drying defects when used traditionally. A simple modification; pulsed spraying can decouple rheology and chemistry and allow for deposition of more uniform silver nanowire mesh films. Additional processing methods, such as metal mesh compression and matrix infilling with a CVD deposited plastic, Parylene-C, can yield a composite that solves roughness issues present with bare films. By combining all of these methods, a silver nanowire-parylene composite can be fabricated using fully scalable techniques ready for sheet-to-sheet or roll-to-roll processing. The composite is flexible, optically transparent, surface smooth, atmospherically stable and conductive, proving itself as a potential replacement for traditional transparent electrodes.