Issue 14, 2020

Recent progress in silver nanowire networks for flexible organic electronics

Abstract

Recently, flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs) have attracted extensive attention as an essential element for future organic electronics (OEs), i.e. solution-processable, scalable and flexible organic electronics (FOEs). Although the traditional transparent electrode indium tin oxide (ITO) has been widely used in OEs, its brittleness and high cost significantly limit its application in the next generation of devices, typically flexible electronics. Thus, many alternatives, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, conductive polymers, metal nanowires, metal grids and electrospun metallic nanofibers, have arisen at the forefront of FTEs. Among them, silver nanowire (AgNW) networks have attracted particular attention due to their excellent electrical conductivity and high transmittance, as well as facile availability and low cost. Since many studies on AgNWs have been published, a comprehensive review highlighting the advantages of AgNWs in FOEs is highly required. In this review, the synthesis and film fabrication of AgNWs have been firstly summarized, focusing especially on the properties of conductivity and light transmittance. Next, post treatments with different approaches to improve the conductivity of AgNWs have been included. And then, characterization of FTEs has been introduced with details on key parameters for FOEs. Furthermore, AgNW-based FOEs have been summarized to demonstrate the recent progress, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic solar cells (OSCs), light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), organic field effect transistors (OFETs), organic memory devices (OMDs), etc. Finally, perspectives for AgNWs in FOEs have been discussed and concluded as well. It is expected that AgNWs could be the focus of future FOEs compared with other alternatives in terms of their advantages of optoelectronic properties, film-formation, solution-processability and flexibility.

Graphical abstract: Recent progress in silver nanowire networks for flexible organic electronics

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
16 12月 2019
Accepted
05 2月 2020
First published
15 2月 2020

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020,8, 4636-4674

Recent progress in silver nanowire networks for flexible organic electronics

W. Li, H. Zhang, S. Shi, J. Xu, X. Qin, Q. He, K. Yang, W. Dai, G. Liu, Q. Zhou, H. Yu, S. R. P. Silva and M. Fahlman, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020, 8, 4636 DOI: 10.1039/C9TC06865A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements