Event Information
The Growth Mechanism of Copper Nanowires and their Properties in Flexible, Transparent Conducting Films
- Abstract:
The development of a transparent electrode that is inexpensive, flexible, and can be deposited at low temperatures would help to eliminate a barrier to the development of low-cost flexible displays, lighting, and solar cells. Since the price of copper is 1% of the price of indium tin oxide, the preferred transparent conductor, thin films of copper nanowires can be made into transparent low-cost flexible electrodes. Thus far, we have synthesized copper nanowires, which sprout and grow from spherical copper seeds, on the gram-scale in an aqueous solution, and prepared them into films that transmit 15% more light than films of carbon nanotubes with the same sheet resistance (15 Ω/sq). These films of copper nanowires remained conductive and had no change in transmittance after storage in air for one month, and exhibited no change in sheet resistance after 1000 bending cycles. Calculated and experimental spectra suggest that the transmittance of conductive copper nanowire films can be increased to over 80% by reducing the aggregation of the nanowires which could revolutionize the development and production of transparent low-cost flexible electrodes.
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