Spray deposition of highly transparent, low-resistance networks of silver nanowires over large areas

A method to produce scalable, low-resistance, high-transparency, percolating networks of silver nanowires by spray coating is presented. By optimizing the spraying parameters, networks with a sheet resistance of R s ≈ 50 ω □-1 at a transparency of T = 90% can be produced. The critical processing parameter is shown to be the spraying pressure. Optimizing the pressure reduces the droplet size resulting in more uniform networks. High uniformity leads to a low percolation exponent, which is essential for low-resistance, high-transparency films. Nanowire networks are promising candidates for use as transparent electrodes. Here spray casting of networks over large areas is described. When optimized, these networks display transparency of 90% for sheet resistance of 50 ω □-1. The resistance of networks displaying 90% transparency is found to scale strongly with the network non-uniformity. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.