Effect of Acrylic Resin Additives on Transparent Conductive Films of Silver Nanowires

Transparent conductive films have been a hot research field in recent years. Among numerous transparent conductive materials, transparent conductive films of silver nanowires have been widely studied due to their higher optoelectronic properties and simpler preparation processes. However, poor adhesion has been a major drawback of the application of silver nanowires in transparent devices. Therefore, the work aims to solve the problem of poor adhesion of silver nanowires networks by adding an acrylic resin solution. By adding acrylic resin additives to silver nanowires solutions, the effects of different amounts of acrylic resin solutions on the photoelectric property and adhesion of transparent conductive films of silver nanowires were investigated. Due to the poor compatibility between ethanol and acrylic resin solution, a centrifugal washing method was employed to change the solvent of silver nanowires solution from ethanol to ethylene glycol methyl ether. The transparent conductive films of silver nanowires, with different amounts of acrylic resin, were prepared on a glass substrate with wire rods of different groove depths. The surface morphology and roughness of the transparent conductive films of silver nanowires were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. It was found that the surface roughness of the transparent conductive films of silver nanowires decreased with the increase of the amount of acrylic resin added and the depth of the wire rod. The transparent conductive films of silver nanowires were tested by a transmittance/haze tester and a non-contact resistance tester. It was found that under the same specifications of the wire rod and the addition of acrylic resin solution ≤ 6%, as the coating frequency increased, the transparency of the transparent conductive films of silver nanowires decreased and the haze increased, while the square resistance gradually decreased and finally tended to be flat. When the amount of acrylic resin added was ≥ 7%, as the coating frequency increased, the square resistance firstly decreased and then increased. The main reason for this phenomenon was due to the insulation property of acrylic resin. An excessive amount of acrylic resin added led to an increase in the contact resistance of the silver nanowires network. Through the hundred grid method of adhesion testing, it was found that with the increase of the amount of acrylic resin added, the adhesion of the transparent conductive films of silver nanowires increased, and the size of the adhesion was independent of the depth of the wire rod. Through least squares data fitting, it was found that the transparent conductive film transmittance of silver nanowires was negatively correlated with the square of the square resistance. The transparent conductive films of silver nanowires prepared with wire rods of larger groove depths had a higher quality factor. When the amount of acrylic resin added was 4% and the groove depth of the wire rod was 20 μm, the transparent conductive films of silver nanowires had the highest quality factor with a transmittance of 84.3%, haze of 2.81%, and square resistance of 28 Ω/□. © 2024 Chongqing Wujiu Periodicals Press. All rights reserved.