Controlled electrophoretic deposition of electrochemically exfoliated graphene sheets on Ag nanowires network

Electrochemical exfoliation of graphite has recently attracted a big attention as a simple, fast and scalable method for the preparation of high quality graphene, but there are some drawbacks that hinder its application. Direct deposition is one of the most critical challenges that makes it difficult to deposit uniform, compact and large scale graphene thin films. This work develops a facile electrophoretic deposition route to fabricate exfoliated graphene (EG) film on Ag nanowires (NWs) networks with a controllable film thickness in nanometers scale. EG thin films are deposited with different applied potentials and times from an EG dispersion in N, N-dimethylformamide solvent. Since confirmed by light transmittance results, the increase in deposition time or applied potential lead to an increase in the number of deposited EG layers. The scanning electron microscopy results confirm the uniformity and compactness of EG films deposited on Ag NWs network. Furthermore, transparency and conductivity of Ag NWs films before and after the deposition of EG are investigated. It shows significant improvement in its performance, as a result, it leads to Ag NWs/EG hybrid films exhibiting a sheet resistance of R s = 30 Ω sq−1, and 85% light transmittance, comparable to conventional transparent conductive oxide films.