Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Improved by Silver Nanowires for Flexible, Semitransparent and Conductive Electrodes on Textile with High Temperature Stability

Abstract

In order to facilitate the design freedom for the implementation of textile-integrated electronics, we seek flexible transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) that can withstand not only the mechanical stresses encountered during use but also the thermal stresses of post-treatment. The transparent conductive oxides (TCO) typically used for this purpose are rigid in comparison to the fibers or textiles they are intended to coat. In this paper, a TCO, specifically aluminum-doped zinc oxide (Al:ZnO), is combined with an underlying layer of silver nanowires (Ag-NW). This combination brings together the advantages of a closed, conductive Al:ZnO layer and a flexible Ag-NW layer, forming a TCE. The result is a transparency of 20–25% (within the 400–800 nm range) and a sheet resistance of 10 Ω/sq that remains almost unchanged, even after post-treatment at 180 °C.