Transparent conductive thin film electrodes are widely used for liquid crystal displays (LCDs), touch screens, solar cells, and flexible displays. For these applications generally indium tin oxide is used. But indium tin oxide has some disadvantages like cracking on flexible surfaces, cost and requiring high temperature during thin film fabrication process. Silver (Ag) nanowire is an promising alternative for the use of indium tin oxide for this applications. Silver nanowires have been attracting more and more attention because of their intriguing electrical, thermal, and optical properties. Silver has the highest electrical conductivity (6.3 × 107 S/m) among all the metals, by virtue of which silver nanowires are considered as very promising candidates in flexible electronics. One of the studies related to this subject showed that the cast silver nanowires thin film used as transparent electrode showed equal merit or better than that as compared with sputter-coated ITO in solar cells.
Films from silver nanowires can be obtained by using techniques, such as vacuum filtration, transfer printing onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrates, drop casting, and air-spraying from nanowire suspension.
Silver nanowires can also be used in textile applications. Conventional textiles such as cotton, nylon and polyester are electrical insulators. Commercially available conductive thread is generally either a solid metal wire, such as copper or stainless steel, or a non-conductive thread coated with a metal film, usually silver. However, these kind of conductive threads are not suitable for wearable applications since they are stiff and brittle. Therefore, after repeated bending cycles they can rupture and tend to cause problems both during weaving and in applications. As a result, novel conductive materials are being investigated for development of conductive textiles via simple methods. These methods can be casting, spinning, printing, direct synthesis on textiles and dipping methods, most of which have already been demonstrated for the fabrication of electrically conductive textiles from the conductive polymers, metal particles, and carbon fillers.
Utilization of one-dimensional nanomaterials instead of nanoparticles decreases the required amount of conductive materials for obtaining three-dimensional conductivity. Moreover, increased surface attraction between conductive filler and matrix prevents conductivity loss in daily usage. Carbon nanotubes, a well-known one-dimensional nanomaterial, have been used as a conductive material in smart textiles. However, although individual carbon nanotubes are highly conductive, the junction resistance between two carbon nanotubes is found to be very high. On the other hand, silver seems as a promising candidate, is the most conductive material both electrically and thermally among all metals. It is cost-effective when compared to gold or platinum, and is more stable in air than its cheaper counterpart copper. Recently, functional fabrics based on silver nanowires are also reported. For instance, in one study coated silver nanowires onto cotton fabrics via dip and dry method and investigated their UV blocking performance. Also the electrical conductivity of silver nanowire decorated fabrics under various mechanical treatments were investigated.
To obtain a fine and homogeneous surface of silver nanowires, Silver Nanowires Suspension in Ethanol can be used. By using ethanol suspension of silver nanowires and air spraying method you may obtain very good films on different substrates.
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