Cohesively enhanced electrical conductivity and thermal stability of silver nanowire networks by nickel ion bridge joining

Shang Wang; Yanhong Tian; Chunjin Hang; Chenxi Wang

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21777-0

Cohesively enhanced electrical conductivity and thermal stability of silver nanowire networks by nickel ion bridge joining

Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 27;8(1):5260. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-21777-0.

Authors

Shang Wang¹, Yanhong Tian², Chunjin Hang¹, Chenxi Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding and Joining, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding and Joining, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China. tianyh@hit.edu.cn.

Abstract

A facile method for producing high-performance nickel enhanced silver nanowire (Ag NW) transparent electrodes on a flexible substrate is reported. The modified electroplating method called enhanced nickel ion bridge joining of Ag NWs, which provides a new route for improving the loose junctions in bare Ag NW networks. The sheet resistance of Ag NW electrode drops from over 2000 Ω sq^-1 to 9.4 Ω sq^-1 with excellent thermal uniformity after the electroplating process within 10 s. Nickel enhanced Ag NW transparent films are applied on flexible heaters with good thermal stability (165 °C for 2 h) and mechanical flexibility (3500 cycles under 2.5 mm bending radius) after mechanical bending process. Moreover, the mechanism of nickel growth is also confirmed that the nickel electroplating of the Ag NWs obeyed Faraday's Laws.