Highly transparent and flexible polyimide-AgNW hybrid electrodes with excellent thermal stability for electrochromic applications and defogging devicesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Basic properties of the synthesized polyimides. See DOI: 10.1039/c5tc00142k

• Main Authors: Lu, Heng-Yi, Chou, Chin-Yen, Wu, Jia-Hao, Lin, Jiang-Jen, Liou, Guey-Sheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 02.04.2015
• ISSN: 2050-7526; 2050-7534
• DOI: 10.1039/c5tc00142k

In this study, highly transparent and flexible electrodes with the highest thermal stability were successfully prepared from silver nanowire (AgNW)-polyimide (PI) hybrid solutions by facile solution casting on insoluble polyimide substrates without any troublesome transferring process. The prepared highly flexible AgNW-PI electrodes exhibit a low resistance of 25 Ω sq −1 and high transmittance up to 86% at a wavelength of 550 nm. Thus, by introducing high performance polyimide as a binder, the obtained colorless AgNW electrodes show improved adhesion properties between the AgNWs and the substrates as well as excellent thermal stabilities and high glass transition temperatures ( T g ) above 300 °C. Furthermore, the resulting AgNW-PI hybrid colorless electrodes could maintain the conductivity even after folding more than 1000 times. Thus, these optically transparent AgNW-PI hybrid electrodes have extremely high potential to operate at high temperatures in the working environment or post processing. By introducing colorless polyimide as a binder, an AgNW transparent electrode exhibited excellent thermal stability, bendability, and adhesion properties.