4.7 Article

Tackling the Stability Issues of Silver Nanowire Transparent Conductive Films through FeCl3 Dilute Solution Treatment

Journal

NANOMATERIALS
Volume 9, Issue 4, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nano9040533

Keywords

silver nanowires; chemisorption-related Fermi level shift; transparent conductive films; size-dependent instability; surface atomic diffusion blocking

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [51771183, 51501182, 51771187, 51502295, U1532268]
  2. Anhui Natural Science Foundation [1708085ME118]
  3. Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [2018485]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been investigated as alternatives to indium tin oxide in transparent conductive films (TCFs) for electronics. However, AgNW TCFs still pose stability issues when exposed to thermal, chemical, and mechanical stimuli. Herein, we demonstrate a facile and effective route to improve stability by treating the films with dilute ferric chloride solution. Our results indicate that after treatment the films exhibit a dramatically enhanced stability against aging, high temperature oxidation, chemical etching, sulfurization, and mechanical straining. Size-dependent instability is fully explored and explained regarding surface atomic diffusion, which could be blocked by enhancing the activation energy of surface diffusion through forming a AgCl cap under ferric chloride solution treatment. Chemisorption-related Fermi level shift of silver nanowires is applied to tune their chemical reactivity to ferric chloride solution for balancing between size-dependent stability improvement and maintaining optoelectrical properties. Owing to the dilute treatment solution, the treated films exhibit a negligible change in light transmittance, whereas sheet resistance decreases by 30% and flexibility increases because of capillary-force-induced welding of contacting AgNWs and AgCl layer mediated tightening. These findings are significant for real-world applications of AgNW TCFs.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available