Extending field-directed nanowire assembly to create large-area transparent conducting layered sandwich for new company-proposed product

太阳能光伏、显示器和触摸屏是需要透明导电电极(Tce)的常见产品的例子。常见的透明材料，如玻璃和塑料，通常不是良好的导电体。特殊配方的材料，如氧化铟锡，既具有高透明度，又具有高导电性，但这些材料价格昂贵，容易损坏。当应用程序需要较大的TCE面积时，这两个缺点尤其明显。使用电子束光刻技术在玻璃等非导电材料上制作纳米级导电栅格，可以在最小的透明度损失下显示高导电性，但对于我们的行业合作伙伴感兴趣的大面积设备来说，成本高得令人望而却步。我们的实验室与这个问题特别匹配，最近发表的结果表明，在衬底上创建了多个链状导电纳米线网络。这是通过控制外加电场控制悬浮流体中廉价合成的纳米线的沉积来实现的。在与我们的行业合作伙伴的这个项目中，我们将使用这种方法在灵活的透明基板上开发经济的类TCE层，以满足公司特定的应用。

Solar photovoltaics, displays and touch screens are examples of common products that require transparent, conductive electrodes (TCEs). Familiar transparent materials, such as glass and plastics are typically not good conductors of electricity. Specially formulated materials, such as indium tin oxide provide both high transparency and high electrical conductivity, but these materials are expensive and prone to damage. Both drawbacks are especially strong when the application demands large TCE area. Conducting nanometer scale grids on non-conducting materials like glass, have been created using electron beam lithography, to demonstrate high conductivity with minimal loss of transparency, but are prohibitively expensive for devices with large area, of interest to our industry partner. Our laboratory is particularly well-matched to this problem, having recently published results demonstrating the creation of multiple chained networks of conducting nanowires on substrate. This was achieved by controlling the deposition of inexpensively synthesized nanowires, from a suspending fluid, by controlling applied electric fields. In this project with our industry partner, we will use this method to develop economical TCE-like layers on flexible transparent substrate layers for the company-specific application.