Construction,Performance Research And Applications Of Silver Nanowire/PEDOT:PSS Composite Transparent Electrodes

With the rapid development of transparent and flexible electronic devices,the transparent electrodes have been required to be highly transparent,flexible and multifunctional.During the research process of novel optoelectronic devices,it is usually to develop the electrode materials and design the microstructures to realize the high-performance devices.In this work,we developed two different conductive inks based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)and silver nanowires(Ag NWs),and applied them in the various device electrodes.We investigated the properties and applications of these electrodes.The main research contents include the following two aspects:(1)Transparent conductive films with hexagonal and square patterns were fabricated on poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)substrates by a screen printing technology utilizing PEDOT:PSS and Ag NWs composite ink.The printing parameters of mesh number,printing layer,mass ratio of PEDOT:PSS to Ag NWs and pattern shape have significant influences on the photoelectric properties of the composite films.The screen mesh with mesh number of 200 possesses a suitable mesh size of 74 μm to print clear and integrated grids with high transparency.With the printing layer increased and mass ratio of PEDOT:PSS to Ag NWs decreased,the transmittance and resistance of the printed grids are both decreased.When the printing layer is 1,the transmittance and resistance is 85.6% and 2.23 kΩ for hexagonal grid,and that is 77.3% and 8.78 kΩ for square grid,revealing that more compact arrangement for square grid reduces the transmittance,and more connection number of square grid would increase the resistance.As a result,the improved photoelectric properties of transparent electrodes could be obtained by designing printing patterns with the optimized printing parameters.Additionally,the Ag NWs/PEDOT:PSS composite films with hexagonal and square pattern exhibit high transparency and good uniformity,providing a promising application in large-area and uniform heaters.(2)A transparent and stretchable strain sensor based on Ag NWs and PEDOT:PSS patterned electrode is presented.The regular patterns are achieved by a facile replication and transfer process from near-field spun polyacrylonitrile(PAN)grids onto the surfaces of polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)substrates.Owing to the unique patterned microstructure of the sensor,easy film-formation and strong adhesion of the polymer PEDOT:PSS,and utilization of Ag NWs with high aspect ratios,the transparent strain sensor possesses the excellent aspects of high sensitivity(maximum gauge factor =10.2),wide sensing range(0-100%),long-term reliability for at least 2000 cycles,and temperature responses.Furthermore,the patterned strain sensor can be mounted on different body parts to detect a wide range of human movements and temperature responses in real time,providing potential multifunctional applications in human/machine interaction,electronic skins,and wearable devices.