High aspect ratio silver nanowires for flexible conductive networks with high optical transparency as electrodes for mechanical actuators

Inhalt:
Indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most prominent material to fabricate optically transparent and electrically conductive layers. Providing low sheet resistance and high optical transmission ITO has only one major downside: its brittleness. Therefore, alternatives to ITO are needed to fabricate flexible transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) in bendable and stretchable optoelectronic devices. In this work, the synthesis of long silver nanowires (longer than 100 µm) and the fabrication of TCE on glass substrates is described. The achieved sheet resistivity is smaller than 221 Ω/sq with a transmittance greater than 96 % at a wavelength of 550 nm. The goal is the future application of these nanowire networks in mechnical actuators.