A solution-processed molybdenum oxide treated silver nanowire network: a highly conductive transparent conducting electrode with superior mechanical and hole injection properties

Abstract

We demonstrate the fabrication of solution-processed MoOx-treated (s-MoOx) silver nanowire (AgNW) transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) utilizing low-temperature (sub-100 °C) processes. The s-MoOx aggregates around the AgNW and forms gauze-like MoOx thin films between the mesh, which can effectively lower the sheet resistance by more than two orders of magnitude. Notably, these s-MoOx-treated AgNW TCEs exhibit a combination of several promising characteristics, such as a high and broad transmittance across a wavelength range of 400 to 1000 nm, transmission of up to 96.8%, a low sheet resistance of 29.8 ohm sq(-1), a low haze value of 0.90%, better mechanical properties against bending and adhesion tests, and preferable gap states for efficient hole injection in optoelectronic applications. By utilizing these s-MoOx-treated AgNW TCEs as the anode in ITO-free organic light emitting diodes, promising performance of 29.2 lm W(-1) and 10.3% external quantum efficiency are demonstrated. The versatile, multi-functional s-MoOx treatment presented here paves the way for the use of low-temperature, solution-processed MoOx as both a nanowire linker and a hole injection interfacial layer for future flexible optoelectronic devices.