Kinetic spraying of silver nanowire blended graphite powder to fabricate transparent conductive electrode and their application in electrochromic device

Abstract A transparent conductive electrode (TCE) using the mxiture of graphite and silver nanowires (AgNWs) powder was fabricated with a nanoparticle deposition system (NPDS), a facile dry deposition approach using a graphite-AgNW powder mixture. The deposited film formed a composite structure with few-layered graphene, single layered graphene sheets, and AgNWs forming a fused junction under optimal heat treatment at 80 °C. The sheet resistance of the deposited film was measured to be 24–28 Ω/□, in accordance with values measured for commercial TCEs. Transmittance of 58–67% was measured for the deposited sample, which was lower than the 20–30% measured for conventional TCEs, due to scattering of incident light by few-layered graphene and AgNWs within the deposited film. An electrochromic (EC) cell with fabricated TCE performed well, showing a transmittance change of 15% at its wavelength of 630 nm. CV measurements were conducted for 500 cycles to confirm the stability of the EC device and TCE, and no performance degradation was observed for the device after 500 cycles, which represents good cyclic stability. Therefore, a TCE using graphite and AgNWs was successfully fabricated using the facile NPDS process, which represents a new fabrication process for TCEs based on graphene and AgNWs.