Fast fabrication of copper nanowire transparent electrodes by a high intensity pulsed light sintering technique in air

Abstract

Copper nanowire transparent electrodes have received increasing interest due to the low price and nearly equal electrical conductivity compared with other TEs based on silver nanowires and indium tin oxide (ITO). However, a post-treatment at high temperature in an inert atmosphere or a vacuum environment was necessary to improve the conductivity of Cu NW TEs due to the easy oxidation of copper in air atmosphere, which greatly cancelled out the low price advantage of Cu NWs. Here, a high intensity pulsed light technique was introduced to sinter and simultaneously deoxygenate these Cu NWs into a highly conductive network at room temperature in air. The strong light absorption capacity of Cu NWs enabled the welding of the nanowires at contact spots, as well as the removal of the thin layer of residual organic compounds, oxides and hydroxide of copper even in air. The Cu NW TE with a sheet resistance of 22.9 Ohm sq⁻¹ and a transparency of 81.8% at 550 nm has been successfully fabricated within only 6 milliseconds exposure treatment, which is superior to other films treated at high temperature in a hydrogen atmosphere. The HIPL process was simple, convenient and fast to fabricate easily oxidized Cu NW TEs in large scale in an air atmosphere, which will largely extend the application of cheap Cu NW TEs.