Highly Stable Silver Nanowire Plasmonic Electrodes for Flexible Polymer Light-Emitting Devices
Ruiqing Li, Qianqian Wang, Jinzhou Jiang, Xunxun Xiang, Pengkang Ye, Yeyang Wang, Yue Qin, Yuehua Chen, Wen‐Yong Lai, Xinwen Zhang
Abstract
Silver nanowire (AgNW) transparent electrodes are considered as a promising candidate for applications in flexible optoelectronic devices. However, it remains a great challenge to obtain flexible AgNW electrodes with excellent optoelectrical properties and mechanical flexibility. Here, highly stable Ag nanoparticle (AgNP)-enhanced plasmonic AgNW electrodes are demonstrated via the controllable in situ growth of AgNPs at the AgNW junctions and introduction of an l -histidine ( l -His) wrapping layer. The flexible transparent electrodes of AgNW-AgNP/ l -His possess a low sheet resistance ( R sh ) of ∼17.5 Ω sq –1, a high transmittance of ∼92.5% (550 nm), and a robust mechanical stability (100,000 bending cycles). Benefiting from plasmon-coupling effects, flexible polymer light-emitting devices (FPLEDs) with AgNW-AgNP/ l -His electrodes present a current efficiency (CE) of ∼14.8 cd A –1 and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of ∼5.6%, constituting ∼80% and ∼75% increases compared to those of the reference devices with AgNW electrodes, respectively. Additionally, the laminated flexible transparent PLEDs (FT-PLEDs) are demonstrated by integrating polydimethylsiloxane/AgNW-AgNP anodes by a soft lamination process. The FT-PLEDs present a CE of ∼7.1 cd A –1 (cathode side: ∼3.9 cd A –1; anode side: ∼3.2 cd A –1 ) and an EQE of ∼2.7% (cathode side: ∼1.5%; anode side: ∼1.2%). Furthermore, the FPLEDs and FT-PLEDs exhibit robust mechanical durability, maintaining ∼89% and ∼86% of their initial luminance after 1000 bending cycles at a bending radius of 2 mm, respectively. This work opens up a new avenue for the development of high performance and stable flexible optoelectronic devices.