Improvement of the Conductivity of Silver Nanowire Film by Adding Silver Nano-Particles

The change of conductivity and transparency of silver nanowire (AgNW) films by adding silver nano-particles (AgNPs) onto their surface is studied. The results show that the conductivity of the AgNW film is greatly improved with its sheet resistance reduced about 78.7% to 51.9 Ω/sq, and there is no obvious reduction of the transmittance. Further studies show that there is a self-assembling process pushing the AgNPs to concentrate at the intersecting points between AgNWs to weld them, which would reduce the intersection resistance between the AgNWs. This self-assembling behavior is led by the surface interactivities among the dispersing liquid of AgNPs, the surface of the substrate and AgNWs when the dispersing liquid is drying.