Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

High-performance transparent film heater using random mesowire silver network

  • Published:
Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this research, we demonstrate a cost-effective method of developing a high temperature transparent heater by creating mesoscale (1–5 μm diameter) silver (Ag) wire network on glass. A colloidal solution of ethanol and cerium oxide (CeO2) is used to create a sacrificial template onto which Ag (100 nm) was deposited using electron beam (EB) evaporation. EB deposition parameters are critically optimized so that Ag wires are annealed instantly having rigid adherence to the substrate surface. A highly interconnected and continuous Ag network is obtained exhibiting transmittance up to 70% and sheet resistance of 1.13 Ω/sq, making it suitable for optoelectronic applications. This transparent conductor serves as a transparent heater when a DC voltage is applied to it, generating temperatures more than 200 °C at an operating voltage of just 4 V. This unique electro-thermal property can be attributed to the triangular junctions of Ag wire network that act as a micro-welding centers which impede the transport current path, favoring resistive Joules heating.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. M.K. Roul, B. Obasogie, G. Kogo, J.R. Skuza, R.M. Mundle, A.K. Pradhan, Transparent and flexible heaters based on Al:ZnO degenerate semiconductor. J. Appl. Phys. 122, 135110 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. D. Kim, L. Zhu, D.J. Jeong, K. Chun, Y.Y. Bang, S.R. Kim, J.H. Kim, S.K. Oh, Transparent flexible heater based on hybrid of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. Carbon 63, 530 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. S. Ji, W. He, K. Wang, Y. Ran, C. Ye, Thermal response of transparent silver nanowire/PEDOT:PSS film heaters. Small 10, 4951 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. K.L. Chopra, S. Major, D.K. Pandya, Transparent conductors—a status review. Thin Solid Films 102, 1–46 (1983)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. J. Li, J. Liang, X. Jian, W. Hu, J. Li, Q. Pei, A flexible and transparent thin film heater based on a silver nanowire/heat-resistant polymer composite. Macromol. Mater. Eng. 299, 1403–1409 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. C.H. Liu, X. Yu, Silver nanowire-based transparent, flexible, and conductive thin film. Nanoscale Res. Lett. 6, 75 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. M.J. Alam, D.C. Cameron, Optical and electrical properties of transparent conductive ITO thin films deposited by sol–gel process. Thin Solid Films 377, 455–459 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. T. Minami, Present status of transparent conducting oxide thin-film development for Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) substitutes. Thin Solid Films 516, 5822–5828 (2008)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. J.H. Park, J.M. Shin, S.Y. Cha, J.W. Park, S.Y. Jeong, H.K. Pak, C.R. Cho, Deposition-temperature effects on AZO thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering and their physical properties. J. Korean Phys. Soc. 49, 584–588 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  10. A. Kim, Y. Won, K. Woo, C.H. Kim, J. Moon, Highly transparent low resistance ZnO/Ag nanowire/ZnO composite electrode for thin film solar cells. ACS Nano 7, 1081–1091 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. D.S. Liu, C.S. Sheu, C.T. Lee, C.H. Lin, Thermal stability of indium tin oxide thin films co-sputtered with zinc oxide. Thin Solid Films 516, 3196–3203 (2008)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. K. Im, K. Cho, J. Kim, S. Kim, Transparent heaters based on solution-processed indium tin oxide nanoparticles. Thin Solid Films 518, 3960–3963 (2010)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. D. Janas, K.K. Koziol, A review of production methods of carbon nanotube and graphene thin films for electrothermal applications. Nanoscale 6, 3037–3045 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. D. Angmo, F.C. Krebs, Flexible ITO-free polymer solar cells. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 129, 1–14 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. R. Gupta, S. Walia, M. Hosel, J. Jensen, D. Angmo, F.C. Krebs, G.U. Kulkarni, Solution processed large area fabrication of Ag patterns as electrodes for flexible heaters, electrochromics and organic solar cells. J. Mater. Chem. A 2, 10930–10937 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. R. Gupta, K.D.M. Rao, S. Kiruthika, G.U. Kulkarni, Visibly transparent heaters. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 8, 12559–12575 (2016)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. X. He, A. Liu, X. Hu, M. Song, F. Duan, Q. Lan, J. Xiao, J. Liu, M. Zhang, Y. Chan, Q. Zeng, Temperature-controlled transparent-film heater based on silver nanowire-PMMA composite film. Nanotechnology 27, 475709–475717 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. D. Sui, Y. Huang, L. Huang, J. Liang, Y. Ma, Y. Chen, Flexible and transparent electrothermal film heaters based on graphene materials. Small 7, 3186–3192 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. J. Groep, P. Spinelli, A. Polman, Transparent conducting silver nanowire networks. Nano Lett. 12, 3138–3144 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. B. Han, K. Pei, Y. Huang, X. Zhang, Q. Rong, Q. Lin, Y. Guo, T. Sun, C. Guo, D. Carnahan, M. Giersing, Y. Wang, J. Gao, Z. Ren, K. Kempa, Uniform self-forming metallic network as a high-performance transparent conductive electrode. Adv. Mater. 26, 873–877 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. A. Kumar, R. Pujar, N. Gupta, S. Tarafdar, U. Giridhar, Kulkarni, Stress modulation in desiccating crack networks for producing effective templates for patterning metal network based transparent conductors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 013502 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. P.-C. Hsu, S. Wang, H. Wu, V.K. Narasimhan, D. Kong, H. Lee, Y. Cui, Performance enhancement of metal nanowire transparent conducting electrodes by mesoscale metal wires. Nat. Commun. 4, 2522 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. H.S. L.Hu, J.-Y. Kim, P. Lee, Peumans, Y. Cui, Scalable coating and properties of transparent, flexible, silver nanowire electrodes. ACS Nano 4, 2955–2963 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. R. Gupta, K.D.M. Rao, K. Srivastava, A. Kumar, S. Kiruthika, G.U. Kulkarni, Spray coating of crack templates for the fabrication of transparent conductors and heaters on flat and curved surfaces. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 6, 13688–13696 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. S. Kiruthika, K.D.M. Rao, A. Kumar, R. Gupta, G.U. Kulkarni, Metal wire network based transparent conducting electrodes fabricated using interconnected crackled layer as template. Mater. Res. Express 1, 026301 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. S. De, T.M. Higgins, P.E. Lyons, E.M. Dohetry, P. Nirmalraj, W.J. Blau, J.J. Boland, J.N. Coleman, Silver nanowire networks as flexible, transparent, conducting films: extremely high DC to optical conductivity ratios. ACS Nano 3, 1767–1774 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. D.S. Ghosh, T.L. Chen, V. Pruneri, High figure-of-merit ultrathin metal transparent electrodes incorporating a conductive grid. Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 041109 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. S. Sepulveda-Mora, S. Cloutier, Figures of merit for high-performance transparent electrodes using dip-coated silver nanowire networks. J. Nanomater. 2012, 9 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. H. Lee, M. Kim, I. Kim, H. Lee, Flexible and stretchable optoelectronic devices using silver nanowires and graphene. Adv. Mater. 28, 4541–4548 (2016)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. S. De, T. Higgins, P. Lyons, E. Doherty, P. Nirmairaj, W. Blau, J. Boland, J. Coleman, Silver nanowire networks as flexible, transparent, conducting films: extremely high DC to optical conductivity ratios. ACS Nano 3, 1767–1774 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. M. Bobinger, V. Dergianlis, A. Albrect, M. Hiader, Q. Himer, M. Becherer, Solution processing of silver nanowires for transparent heaters and flexible electronics, in 2017 IEEE 13th Conference on Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics (PRIME), pp. 9–12 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/PRIME.2017.7974094

  32. K.D.M. Rao, G.U. Kulkarni, A highly crystalline single Au wire network as a high temperature transparent heater. Nanoscale 6, 5645–5651 (2014)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. S.H. Park, S.M. Lee, E.H. Ko, T.H. Kim, Y.C. Nah, S.J. Lee, J.H. Lee, H.K. Kim, Roll-to-roll sputtered ITO/Cu/ITO multilayer electrode for flexible, transparent thin film heaters and electrochromic applications. Sci. Rep. 6, 33868 (2016)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. H. Jo, S. An, J. Lee, H. Park, S. Al-Deyab, A. Yarin, S. Yoon, Highly flexible, stretchable, patternable, transparent copper fiber heater on a complex 3D surface. NPG Asia Mater. 9, e347 (2017)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. T.J. Kang, T.S. Kim, M. Seo, Y.J. Park, Y.H. Kim, Thickness-dependent thermal resistance of a transparent glass heater with a single-walled carbon nanotube coating. Carbon 49, 1087–1093 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. O. Ergun, S. Coskun, Y. Yusufoglu, H. Unalan, High-performance, bare silver nanowire network transparent heaters. Nanotechnology 27, 445708 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. T. Kim, Y. Kim, H. Lee, H. Kim, W. Yang, K. Suh, Uniformly interconnected silver-nanowire networks for transparent film heaters. Adv. Funct. Mater. 23, 1250–1255 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. J. Kang, H. Kim, K.S. Kim, S.K. Lee, S. Bae, J.H. Ahn, Y.J. Kim, J.B. Choi, B.H. Hong, High-performance graphene-based transparent flexible heaters. Nano Lett. 11, 5154–5158 (2011)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the NSF-CREST (CNBMD) Grant No. HRD 1036494 and NSF-CREST Grant No. HRD-1547771.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Materials Research, Department of Engineering, Norfolk State University, 700 Park Avenue, Norfolk, VA, 23504, USA

    Monee K. Roul, Jasmine Beckford, Brandon Obasogie, Kelsea Yarbrough, Messaoud Bahoura & A. K. Pradhan

Authors
  1. Monee K. Roul
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jasmine Beckford
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Brandon Obasogie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kelsea Yarbrough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Messaoud Bahoura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. A. K. Pradhan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Monee K. Roul.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Roul, M.K., Beckford, J., Obasogie, B. et al. High-performance transparent film heater using random mesowire silver network. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 21088–21096 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-0257-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-0257-9

Search

Navigation