Reliability of silver nanowire transparent electrode under atmospheric environment

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) transparent electrodes have attracted considerable attention owing to their high electrical and thermal conductivity, optical transparency, flexibility on many polymer substrates, and simple solution process. Many reports only focused on improving the performance of AgNWs electrodes while ignored the application lifetime considering that silver nanomaterials are susceptive to be oxidized or sulfurized under natural environment. In this work, the effect of various environment factors on long-term reliability of AgNWs electrodes was investigated. The electrical resistance and transmittance evolution of these AgNWs electrodes with storage time closely depended on light illumination, humidity and temperature. Exposure to light accelerated the degradation of nanowires and destroyed the conductivity of electrodes. High humidity environment increased the failure of AgNWs electrodes. Combining with high temperature, the failure rate was drastically intensified. At last, some over-coating layers were selected to protect AgNWs electrodes from these environment factors.