Solution-phase Polyol Controlled Synthesis Of Silver Nanowires And Their Application In Transparent Conductive Film

With the development of science and technology, demand for smart-phones, flat-panel, e-readers, touch-screens, smart-glass, thin film photovoltaics increases dramatically. Transparent conductors are a necessary component of all the above devices. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most commonly used transparent conductor, it has been widely used in optoelectronics for decades, and now over 90% of the entire market for transparent conductors is related to ITO. The abundance of indium in the earth’s crust is low, and the fabrication process is expensive, so the price of ITO is high. In the mean time, ITO is a ceramic, and is thus brittle and prone to cracking, so it is impossible to fabricate flexible devices. Therefore the alternative to ITO has to be found.Of the various alternatives to ITO, metal nanowires are both solution coatable and achieve performance equivalent to ITO. In addition, metal nanowires films are not only much more flexible than ITO, but can even be made to be stretchable. Thus metal nanowires films are currently the most promising material yet for replacing ITO across a broad range of existing and emerging applications.In this Progress Report, we summarize the rapid advances being made in the understanding of the structure-property relationship of metal nanowire films, as well as synthetic approaches to generating nanowires with structures specifically tuned for optimal performance in transparent, conducting nanowires networks.The dissertation concentrates on the controllable preparation of silver nanowires and their properties in the transparent conductive film, which is as following:1. Introduction of specialty and applications of noble metal nanomaterials and one dimensional nanomaterials, especially the performance of one dimensional metal nanomaterials in transparent conductive film. Discuss the rapid advances being made in the understanding of the structure-property relationship of metal nanowires films, as well as synthetic approaches to generating nanowires and different approaches to coat nanowires from solution and process the films to improve their conductivity, durability.2. By using solution-phase polyol methods, high aspect ratio uniform silver nanowires were achieved. The importance of surfactant PVP and the growth mechanism will be mainly discussed.3. The silver nanowires based transparent conductive film was spin coated onto the substrate, and the optical and electrical properties were tested. In this part, we will discuss the mechanism why different silver nanowires show different performance.