Facile Post Treatment of Ag Nanowire/Polymer Composites for Flexible Transparent Electrodes and Thin Film Heaters
In Su Jin,
Hee Dong Lee,
Seok Il Hong,
Woosung Lee,
Jae Woong Jung
Affiliations
In Su Jin
Department of Advanced Materials Engineering for Information and Electronics, Integrated Education Institute for Frontier Materials (BK21 Four), Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyeong-daero, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si 446-701, Gyeonggi-do, Korea
Hee Dong Lee
Advanced Textile R&D Department, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), Ansan 15588, Korea
Seok Il Hong
Advanced Textile R&D Department, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), Ansan 15588, Korea
Woosung Lee
Advanced Textile R&D Department, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), Ansan 15588, Korea
Jae Woong Jung
Department of Advanced Materials Engineering for Information and Electronics, Integrated Education Institute for Frontier Materials (BK21 Four), Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyeong-daero, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si 446-701, Gyeonggi-do, Korea
Typical polyol-based synthesis of silver nanowire employs insulating polymer as a surfactant for the silver nanowire growth, which limits direct contact between each nanowire and thus its optoelectronic properties. We herein demonstrate that a simple solvent treatment effectively removes the insulating polymer around Ag NWs, leading to significantly decreased sheet resistance (~12 Ω/sq) with an increased transmittance (81% @ T550), as compared to other post-treatments. We successfully demonstrate the transparent film heaters using the solvent-treated Ag NWs network, which rapidly exhibited 150 °C under a bias of 5 V. Flexible film heaters on plastic substrate is also demonstrated, suggesting a great potential of the solvent treatment process of Ag NWs for flexible transparent electrode and film heater applications.