Fabrication and characterization of flexible transparent electrodes manufactured from silver nanowire

In this work, ITO/silver nanowire (AgNW)/ITO (IAWI) and IZO/AgNW/IZO (ZAWZ) hybrid electrodes were prepared on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates at low temperature. The physical properties of the flexible electrodes were studied using X-ray diffraction, spectrophotometer, field-emission scanning electron microscope, Hall, and four-point probe resistivity measurements. The Haacke index shows that an electrode has the best optoelectronic properties at an AgNW concentration of 2.0 mg/mL. At this concentration, the sheet resistances of the IAWI and ZAWZ electrodes are 18.6 Ω/sq and 16.0 Ω/sq, respectively. The bending test results show that the electrical properties of both ITO and IZO films became poor only after 100 bending tests. In contrast, the sheet resistances of the IAWI and ZAWZ electrodes show no obvious change after 1000 bending tests, confirming their excellent flexibility. A hyperspectral technique is developed to characterize the damages within the electrodes caused by the bending test.