Spray Deposition of Highly Transparent, Low-Resistance Networks of Silver Nanowires over Large Areas

A method to produce scalable, low-resistance, high-transparency, percolating networks of silver nanowires by spray coating is presented. By optimizing the spraying parameters, networks with a sheet resistance of R-s approximate to 50 Omega square(-1) at a transparency of T = 90% can be produced. The critical processing parameter is shown to be the spraying pressure. Optimizing the pressure reduces the droplet size resulting in more uniform networks. High uniformity leads to a low percolation exponent, which is essential for low-resistance, high-transparency films.