Highly sandwich-structured silver nanowire hybrid transparent conductive films for flexible transparent heater applications

Hybridization with other materials has been an effective method to improve the photoelectric performance and stability of silver nanowire (AgNW) based transparent conductive films (TCFs). In the work, hybrid TCFs with a sandwiched structure composed of MXene, AgNW, and graphene were proposed. MXene sheets in the bottom acted as the intermediate layer between substrates and AgNWs could significantly improve the adhesion, graphene could be used as protective layer, and both filled the AgNW network to improve conductivity and flatness. As a result, the TCF displayed good photoelectric performance (14.4 Ω/sq with 87.5% transmittance at 550 nm), low surface roughness, enhanced adhesion and stability. Furthermore, transparent heaters (THs) were fabricated with the MXene/AgNW/graphene hybrid TCFs. The THs exhibited uniform heating distribution, fast thermal response, good repeatability and long-term working stability. Therefore, flexible THs proposed are expected to be widely used in defogging systems, smart windows, and other flexible electronic devices.