High-stability composite AgNWs/gum arabic electrodes for flexible organic light-emitting devices

Abstract

Silver nanowire (AgNW) electrodes are considered promising candidates for application in flexible optoelectronic devices due to their excellent mechanical flexibility and optoelectrical properties. However, AgNW-based flexible transparent electrodes suffer from critical limitations such as rough surfaces, low adhesion to substrates, poor bending resistance and inferior environmental stability, hindering their industrialized application in flexible optoelectronic devices. In this study, degradable AgNWs composite electrodes with outstanding optoelectrical properties and mechanical stability were fabricated by adopting gum arabic, a natural eco-friendly material, as a modification layer. The composite electrodes exhibit low surface roughness of ∼4.9 nm, sheet resistance of 22 ± 2 Ω sq⁻¹, transmittance of ∼98.3%, exceptional mechanical stability of 200 000 bending cycles and excellent environmental stability of 800 hours storage under ∼80 °C and ∼80% relative humidity. Based on the composite electrode, a flexible green phosphorescent organic light-emitting device achieves a luminance of 55 140 cd m⁻² and a current efficiency of 77.4 cd A⁻¹. This research provides a facile and low-cost method for the fabrication of large-area high-performance flexible transparent electrodes.