• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2015

Silver nanowire (AgNW) is a material that is increasingly being used for transparent electrodes, as a substitute for indium tin oxide (ITO), owing to its flexibility, high transmittance to sheet resistance ratio, and simple production process. This study involves manufacturing large-area organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) deposited on AgNW electrodes. We compared the efficiency of OPVs with ITO and AgNW electrodes. The results verified that an OPV with an AgNW electrode performed better than that with an ITO electrode. Furthermore, by using the knife coating method, we successfully fabricated large-area OPVs without the loss of efficiency. Use of AgNW instead of ITO demonstrated that an OPV could be produced on various substrates by the solution process method, dropping the productions costs significantly. Additionally, by using the knife coating method, the process time and amount of wasted solution are reduced. This leads to an increase in the efficient fabrication of the OPV.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.486-491
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• 2017

Silver nanowire (AgNW) transparent electrode is one of next generations of flexible and transparent electrode. The electrode shows high conductivity and high transparency comparable to ITO. However, the electrode is weak against heat. The wires are separated into nanodots at temperature above $200^{\circ}C$. It causes the electrical resistance increase. Moreover, it is vulnerable to oxygen and moisture in the atmosphere. The improvement of thermal and moisture resistance of silver nanowire transparent electrode is the most important for commercializing. We proposed silver nanowires transparent electrode which is capped with very thin nickel oxide layer. The nickel oxide layer is five nanometers of thickness, but the heat and moisture resistance of the transparent electrode is effectively improved. The AgNW/NiO electrode can endure at $300^{\circ}C$ of temperature for 30 minutes, and resistance is not increased for 180 hours at $85^{\circ}C$ of temperature and 85% of relative humidity. We showed an applications of transparent and flexible heater using the electrode, the heater is operated more than $180^{\circ}C$ of temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2018

Transparent conductive thin films (TCFs) are essential materials for solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, and display panels. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is one of the most widely used commercial materials to create TCFs'; however, new materials that can possibly replace ITO at a lower cost and/or those possessing mechanical flexibility are urgently needed. Silver nanowire (AgNW) is one of those promising materials, as it is less expensive and possesses superior mechanical flexibility as compared to ITO. We used AgNW and sol-gel ZnO to fabricate composite thin films by spray coating. We propose two spray-coating methods: the 'metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)/AgNW' method and the Mixture method. These two methods are expected to be commercialized for high-quality and low-cost products, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2020

Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks have been adopted as a front electrode in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells due to their low cost and compatibility with the solution process. When an AgNW network is applied to a CIGS thin film solar cell, reflection loss can increase because the CdS layer, with a relatively high refractive index (n ~ 2.5 at 550 nm), is exposed to air. To resolve the issue, we apply solution-processed ZnO nanorods to the AgNW network as an anti-reflective coating. To obtain high performance of the optical and electrical properties of the ZnO nanorod and AgNW network composite, we optimize the process parameters - the spin coating of AgNWs and the concentration of zinc nitrate and hexamethylene tetramine (HMT - to fabricate ZnO nanorods. We verify that 10 mM of zinc nitrate and HMT show the lowest reflectance and 10% cell efficiency increase when applied to CIGS thin film solar cells.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2018

Elastic resistive pressure sensor is fabricated by a direct spray coating of silver nanowires (AgNWs) on uncured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and an additional coating of a conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). To improve the sensitive and stability, we have fabricated sandwich-structured AgNW/polymer sensor where two AgNW/polymer-coated PDMS films are laminated with the conducting surfaces contacted by pressure lamination. It shows a resistance decrease upon loading due to the formation of dense network of AgNWs. It is demonstrated that the sandwich-structured AgNW/polymer sensor exhibits very high sensitivity ($2.59kPa^{-1}$) and gauge factor (37.8) in the low pressure regime. It can also detect a subtle placement and removal of a weight as low as 3.4 mg, the corresponding pressure of which is about 5.4 Pa. It is shown that the protrusion of AgNWs from PDMS is suppressed substantially by the over-coated PEDOT:PSS layer, thereby reducing hysteresis and rendering the sensor more stable.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.16-30
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• 2017

Currently, e-textile market is rapidly expanding and the emerging area of e-textiles requires electrically conductive threads for diverse applications, including wearable innovative e-textiles that can transmit/receive and display data with a variety of functions. This study introduces hybrid nano-structures which may help increase the conductivity of the textile threads for use in wearable and flexible smart apparels. For this aim, Ag was selected as a conductive material, and yarn treatment was implemented where silver nanowire (AgNW) and graphene flake (GF) hybrid structures overcome the limitations of the AgNW alone. The yarn treatment includes several treatment conditions, e.g., annealing temperature, annealing time, binder material such as polyurethane (PU), coating time, in order to search for the optimum method to form stable conductive nano-scale composite materials as thin film on the surface of textile yarns. Treatedyarns showed improved electrical resistance readings. The functionality of the spandex yarn as a stretchable conductive thread was also demonstrated. When the yarn specimens were treated with colloid of AgNW/GF, relatively good electrical conductivity value was obtained. During the extension and recovery cycles of the treated yarns, the initial resistance values did not deteriorate significantly, since the network of nanowire structure with the support of GF and polyurethane stayed flexible and stable. Through this research, it was found that when one-dimensional structure of AgNW and two-dimensional structure of GF were mixed as colloids and treated on the surface of textile yarns, flexible and stretchable electrical conductor could be formed.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.835-843
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• 2018

In this work, we report a delta rosette strain sensor based on highly stretchable silver nanowire (AgNW) percolation piezoresistors. The proposed rosette strain sensors were easily prepared by a facile two-step fabrication route. First, three identical AgNW piezoresistive electrodes were patterned in a simple and precise manner on a donor film using a solution-processed drop-coating of the AgNWs in conjunction with a tape-type shadow mask. The patterned AgNW electrodes were then entirely transferred to an elastomeric substrate while embedding them in the polymer matrix. The fabricated stretchable AgNW piezoresistors could be operated at up to 20% strain without electrical or mechanical failure, showing a maximum gauge factor as high as 5.3, low hysteresis, and high linearity ($r^2{\approx}0.996$). Moreover, the sensor responses were also found to be highly stable and reversible even under repeated strain loading/unloading for up to 1000 cycles at a maximum tensile strain of 20%, mainly due to the mechanical stability of the AgNW/elastomer composites. In addition, both the magnitude and direction of the principal strain could be precisely characterized by configuring three identical AgNW piezoresistors in a delta rosette form, representing the potential for employing the devices as a multidimensional strain sensor in various practical applications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.609-614
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• 2017

The proposed stretchable transparent electrodes based on silver nanowires (AgNWs) were prepared on a polyurethane (PU) substrate. In order toavoid the surface roughness caused by the silver nanowires, a titanium oxide ($TiO_2$) buffer layer was addedby coating and heating the organometallic sol-gel solution. The fabricated stretchable electrodes showedan electrical sheet resistance of $24{\Omega}sq^{-1}$, 78% transmittance at 550 nm, and an average surface roughness below 5 nm. Furthermore, the AgNW-based electrode maintained its initial electrical resistance under 130% strain testing conditions, without the assistance of additional conductive polymer layers. In this paper, the critical role of the $TiO_2$ buffer layer between the AgNW network and the PU substrate has been discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.572-576
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• 2017

A hybrid transparent electrode was fabricated with graphene and silver nanowires (Ag NWs). Three different processes were used to fabricate the hybrid electrode. Measurements of the sheet resistances, transmittances, and surface roughnesses of the hybrid electrodes were used to identify the optimal fabrication process. The surface roughness of the hybrid electrodes with Ag NWs embedded in a transparent polymer matrix was significantly lower than that of the other hybrid electrodes. A hybrid electrode fabricated by transferring graphene onto Ag NWs after spin-coating the Ag NWs onto the substrate showed the lowest sheet resistance. The transmittance of the hybrid electrodes was comparable to that of Ag NW electrodes.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.182-189
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• 2020

Indium tin oxide (ITO) used a transparent electrode of a photoelectric device has a low sheet resistance and a high transmittance. However, ITO is disadvantageous in that the process cost is expensive, and the process time is long. Silver nanowires (AgNWs) transparent electrodes are based on a low cost solution process. In addition, it has attracted attention as a next-generation transparent electrode material that replaces ITO because it has similar electrical and optical characteristic to ITO, it is noted as a. AgNW thin films are mainly produced by spin-coating. However, the spin-coating process has a disadvantage of high material loss. In this study, the material loss was reduced by using about 2~10 ㎕ of AgNW solution on a (25 × 25) ㎟ substrate using the shear-coating method. It was also possible to align AgNWs in the drag direction by dragging the meniscus of the solution. The electro-optical properties of the AgNW thin film were adjusted by changing the experimental parameters that the amount of AgNWs suspension, the gap between the substrate and the blade, and the coating speed. As a result, AgNW thin films with a transmittance of 90.7 % at a wavelength of 550 nm and a sheet resistance of 15 Ω/□ was deposited and exhibited similar properties to similar AgNW transparent electrodes studied by other researchers.