Effective passivation of Ag nanowire-based flexible transparent conducting electrode by TiO2 nanoshell

Silver nanowire-based flexible transparent electrodes have critical problem, in spite of their excellent electrical and optical properties, that the electrical conductance and transparency degrade within several days in air because of oxidation of silver. To prevent the degradation of the silver nanowire, we encapsulated Ag-NWs with thin TiO2 barrier. Bar-coated silver nanowires on flexible polymer substrate were laminated at 120 °C, followed by atomic layer deposition of TiO2 nanoshell. With 20 nm of TiO2 nanoshells on silver nanowires, the transparent electrode keeps its electrical and optical properties over 2 months. Moreover, the TiO2-encapsulated silver nanowire-based transparent electrodes exhibit excellent bending durability.