Highly Reliable Ag Nanowire Flexible Transparent Electrode with Mechanically Welded Junctions

Autor: Young-Chang Joo, Byungil Hwang, Seung Min Han, Taegeon Kim, Hae-A-Seul Shin
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: Small. 10:3397-3404
ISSN: 1613-6810
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201303906
Popis: Deformation behavior of the Ag nanowire flexible transparent electrode under bending strain is studied and results in a novel approach for highly reliable Ag nanowire network with mechanically welded junctions. Bending fatigue tests up to 500,000 cycles are used to evaluate the in situ resistance change while imposing fixed, uniform bending strain. In the initial stages of bending cycles, the thermally annealed Ag nanowire networks show a reduction in fractional resistance followed by a transient and steady-state increase at later stages of cycling. SEM analysis reveals that the initial reduction in resistance is caused by mechanical welding as a result of applied bending strain, and the increase in resistance at later stages of cycling is determined to be due to the failure at the thermally locked-in junctions. Based on the observations from this study, a new methodology for highly reliable Ag nanowire network is proposed: formation of Ag nanowire networks with no prior thermal annealing but localized junction formation through simple application of mechanical bending strain. The non-annealed, mechanically welded Ag nanowire network shows significantly enhanced cyclic reliability with essentially 0% increase in resistance due to effective formation of localized wire-to-wire contact.
Databáze: OpenAIRE