Effects of silver nanowire concentration and annealing temperature on the optoelectronic properties of hybrid transparent electrodes

In this study, Ag nanowire (AgNW) was used to fabricate ITO/AgNW/ITO (IAI) and ZnO/AgNW/ZnO (ZAZ) hybrid transparent electrodes. The covered area ratio of AgNW showed that when AgNW concentration n _AgNW ≥ 2.0 mg/mL, AgNW easily agglomerated during the spin-coating. Meanwhile, Haacke index and haziness measurements also indicated that for application with high optical demands, the AgNW concentration should be ≤2.0 mg/mL for both ZnO or ITO systems. In this study, when n _AgNW = 2.0 mg/mL, the sheet resistant of ZAZ electrodes was 10.5 Ω/sq while the transmittance (including glass) was 72.7% in the visible region. For IAI electrodes, the sheet resistant was 18.8 Ω/sq and transmittance (including glass) was 78.2% in the visible region. Further analysis implied that the sheet resistance of hybrid electrodes could be as low as 10 Ω/sq by optimizing AgNW distribution as well as using suitable annealing techniques.