Fabrication of enhanced silver nanowire films via self-assembled gold nanoparticles without post-treatment

Transparent Silver nanowire (AgNW) electrodes have been widely explored in many applications as a promising alternative to relatively expensive indium tin oxide (ITO). For these applications, high contact resistance at the junctions of AgNWs is a main problem to be solved. In this letter, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-self-assembled method has been demonstrated to improve the optoelectronic performance of AgNW films. The sheet resistance of this novel AgNW film is measured as low as 13.2 Omega/sq, and the transmittance is high to 86.1%. Self-assembled AuNPs can enrich the percolation paths between AgNWs with negligible loss of optical properties, thereby realizing the excellent optoelectronic performance of AgNW films. Moreover, no extra post-treatment procedures are needed for the fabrication process. All these advantages indicate this method has great potentials for achieving high performance transparent electrodes in emerging optoelectronic devices. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.