Development of solution-processed nanowire composites for opto-electronics
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Functional Oxides Research Letter
Development of solution-processed nanowire composites for opto-electronics David S. Ginley, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Process Tech and Adv Concepts, Golden, CO 80401, USA Shruti Aggarwal, University School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Guro Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi 110075, India Rajiv Singh, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi 110012, India Tom Gennett, Maikel F. A. M. van Hest, and John D. Perkins, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Process Tech and Adv Concepts, Golden, CO 80401, USA Address all correspondence to David S. Ginley at [email protected] (Received 1 July 2016; accepted 18 October 2016)
Abstract Silver nanowire-based contacts represent one of the major new directions in transparent contacts for opto-electronic devices with the added advantage that they can have Indium-Tin-Oxide-like properties at substantially reduced processing temperatures and without the use of vacuum-based processing. However, nanowires alone often do not adhere well to the substrate or other film interfaces; even after a relatively high-temperature anneal and unencapsulated nanowires show environmental degradation at high temperature and humidity. Here we report on the development of ZnO/Ag-nanowire composites that have sheet resistance below 10 Ω/sq and >90% transmittance from a solution-based process with process temperatures below 200 °C. These films have significant applications potential in photovoltaics and displays.
Introduction Recently, the touch screen and display industry have begun to move to silver nanowire (AgNW)-based contacts due to their ability to readily integrate the contact with the lower-temperature and ink-based processing employed increasingly for the rest of the touch panel processing.[1] This has led to increased interest in the use of transparent nanowire contacts in other applications such as photovoltaics (PV), OLED/PLED, and Film Heaters. Their use in PV and especially PV produced on flexible substrates is very attractive due to their inherent flexibility and compatibility with roll-to-roll processing. Many recent reports have shown that AgNW transparent conductors (TCs) have excellent macroscopic optical transparency and electrical sheet resistance properties that are comparable with vacuum PVD-deposited Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) or ZnO transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) that are historically employed in these applications.[2–5] Nanowires alone cannot meet the increasingly demanding lifecycle for PV especially with some projections for device life of up to 50 years or for example the more stressful environment of hot and humid climates around the world. In particular, bare AgNW mesh TCs have significant problems with chemical reactivity,[6–8] adhesion,[9–11] and shunting[12] (i.e., reliability), as well as efficient photocurrent collection from the large open areas between the wires[13,14] and band energy alignment[15–17] (i.e., efficiency). These problems in principle can be avoided by encapsulating the nanowires in a media tha
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