Preparation And Properties Of The Flexible,Transparent,and Conductive Silver Nanowire Film

With the development of science and technology, electronic devices, particularly flat panel display, are expected to be more and more light and thin. Because of their light weight, deformability, and non-frangibility, transparent conductive film with flexible substrates, has become an international research hotspot. As we all know, indium tin oxide (ITO) as the most important transparent and conductive film (TCF) has been widely used in optoelectronics for50years, but it is completely unsuitable to flexible devices because of its brittle nature. Random networks of silver nanowire (AgNW), owing to its highest electrical conductivity and optical transparency, are the most promising replacement for ITO. Moreover, for the AgNW film, one of the most important advantages is that the flexibility does not come at the cost of performance in terms of sheet resistance and transparency. The dissertation concentrates on the preparation of the transparent, conductive, and flexible AgNW film and its performance study, which is as following:1. In this paper, we used the vacuum filtration method to fabricate AgNW films on mixture of cellulose (MCE) membranes. Then we transferred the AgNW film to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) after dissolved the MCE membrane. Using transfer method to prepare flexible TCF, we can choose the substrate as required and it can effectively overcome poor thermostability of the flexible substrate. As the MCE membrane, used as the filter, can became transparent and pore-free after treated with acetone vapor, transparent AgNW-MCE films were directly obtained with the transfer process eliminated.2. We have systematically studied the electrical conductivity, optical transparency, flexibility, and the adhesion between AgNW film and the substrate of the AgNW film on different substrates. The results show that the AgNW-MCE film has the best conductive and optical performance. An optimal result is obtained with transmittance of85%at550nm and sheet resistance about500hm/sq. Both AgNWs-MCE films and AgNWs-PVA films show an excellent adhesion to the substrate, which causes a stable electrical conductivity even after scotch tape test and finger friction test.3. We used three methods for improving the adhesion between the AgNW film and PET. The three methods are adding an adhesive layer, adding a protective layer and dissolving the surface of the substrate respectively. After treated by these methods, the adhesion is improved significantly. The results show that the adhesion was improved most effectively by adding an adhesive layer.4. Patterned AgNWs-PVA film were fabricated by laser etch. Then we prepared a transparent flexible LED display circuit using the patterned AgNWs-PVA film.