High Conductivity and Stability of Welded Silver Nanowires Transparent Films Encapsulated by a Graphene Layer

Abstract

Both graphene and silver nanowire electrodes are thermoelectric materials that replace ITO as electrodes for optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we studied the effect of silver nanowire concentrations on electrode performance. By taking into account factors such as the sheet resistance and the transmittance of the films, the concentration of silver nanowires solution was finally chosen to be 3 mg/ml. Compared with Joule heat welding, capillary welding has self-limiting, which can prevent silver nanowires from being blown because of excessive heat. Therefore, capillary welding was chosen to improve the junction problem. In addition, graphene was chosen as an encapsulation layer to protecting silver nanowires from oxidation while improving electrical properties. Finally, the graphene/silver nanowire composite electrode had the sheet resistance of 59.7 Ω/sq with the transmission of 91.8 % at 550 nm.