Uniform, highly conductive and flexible silver nanowire transparent conductive films

Abstract

Recently, removing poly vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) adsorbed on silver nanowires (AgNWs) during polyol synthesis is still difficult after forming nanowire networks. However, the insulating ligand will increase the junction resistance to some extent, which will damage the electrical performance of AgNW films. Here, we reported an ion bombardment post-treatment process to obtain high-quality AgNW networks on flexible substrates. Through a high-energy argon ion beam with enough high energy bombarding the surface of the conductive film, the non-conductive layer on the surface could be peeled off and the optoelectrical property would be significantly improved. In addition, the post-treatment method was used for AgNW films by different preparation processes and the optoelectrical performance of these films was significantly improved, indicating that our method was universally applicable. Furthermore, the method and traditional methods can complement each other to obtain better optoelectrical performance. It may have a bright prospect for future optoelectronic applications.