Flexible transparent conductive films based on silver nanowires by ultrasonic spraying process

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are considered as an ideal material to substitute indium tin oxide (ITO) owing to their outstanding characteristics, such as excellent electrical conductivity, transmittance, and bending properties. Ultrasonic spraying method is used to fabricate AgNWs films because of its high efficiency, controllability, and high uniformity of coating. In this work, high-purity AgNWs with an average diameter of 45 nm and an average length of 20 μm were prepared via acetone settling and ethanol washing of the products obtained by a simple solvothermal method. Subsequently, flexible transparent conductive films with sheet resistance non-uniformity less than 8% were prepared through Ultrasonic spraying AgNWs and modified poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) upon polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate successively, and the surface roughness of the films was lessened by mechanical hot pressing. Finally, PET/AgNWs/PEDOT:PSS films were obtained with a transmittance at 550 nm of 85.06%, a sheet resistance of 45 Ω/sq, a haze of 3%, and a root mean square roughness of 14.1 nm. After being placed in air under normal temperature for two months and mechanical bending for 1000 times, respectively, the sheet resistance of the films showed only a slight change, which suggested that it was an excellent material to displace the conventional transparent conductive films.