All-atmospheric fabrication of Ag–Cu core–shell nanowire transparent electrodes with Haacke figure of merit >600 × 10(–3) Ω(−1)

Transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) are essential components in devices such as touch screens, smart windows, and photovoltaics. Metal nanowire networks are promising next-generation TCEs, but best-performing examples rely on expensive metal catalysts (palladium or platinum), vacuum processing, or transfer processes that cannot be scaled. This work demonstrates a metal nanowire TCE fabrication process that focuses on high performance and simple fabrication. Here we combined direct and plating metallization processes on electrospun nanowires. We first directly metallize silver nanowires using reactive silver ink. The silver catalyzes subsequent copper plating to produce Ag–Cu core–shell nanowires and eliminates nanowire junction resistances. The process allows for tunable transmission and sheet resistance properties by adjusting electrospinning and plating time. We demonstrate state-of-the-art, low-haze TCEs using an all-atmospheric process with sheet resistances of 0.33 Ω sq(−1) and visible light transmittances of 86% (including the substrate), leading to a Haacke figure of merit of 652 × 10(–3) Ω(−1). The core–shell nanowire electrode also demonstrates high chemical and bending durability.