Synergistic Effect of Ionic Liquid and Superwettability Enables Large-Scale Fabrication of Aligned Silver Nanowire-Based Transparent Electrodes

Abstract

Aligned and cross-aligned silver nanowires (AgNWs) have emerged as a promising class of flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs) for broad applications in flexible optoelectronic devices. However, the large-scale fabrication of aligned AgNWs remains challenging due to special setups, rigid condition control, and complex procedures. Here, we show that the synergistic effect of ionic-liquid-induced localized orientation at the air–water interface and subsequent superwettability-enhanced orientation induced by spontaneous transfer leads to the alignment of AgNWs. This strategy enables the facile and scalable fabrication of large-area aligned AgNWs and layer-by-layer fabrication of cross-aligned AgNWs FTEs with sheet resistance of 11–20 Ω sq^–1 and transmittance of 86%–92% at 550 nm. The cross-aligned AgNWs FTEs can be applied for flexible electronic devices such as transparent heaters, electroluminescent devices, and touch panels, exhibiting high optoelectrical performances. Our results shed light on exploration of large-area production of aligned AgNWs and provide an effective approach to prepare high-performance cross-aligned AgNWs FTEs for a variety of flexible electronic devices.