One-dimensional silver nanowires gained great interest in the research field of next-generation nano-optoelectronic device because they can serve as the elemental component of nano-optical waveguides supporting surface plasmon polaritons in the sub-wavelength scale, breaking the optical diffraction limit. They can also be used for the construction of transparent conductive films with high transmittance owning to their excellent electronic conductivity. Therefore, silver nanowires have broad application prospects in the fields of nanophotonics, flexible electronics, printable electronics, thin film based display and illumination.
This study proposed an alternative chemical method without any templates for the controllable synthesis and purification of ultrathin silver nanowires with the diameter of 10 nm level. Using insitu optical imaging, spectral analysis and contour scanning measurements, the relationship between the size and the optical scattering property fora single silver nanowire was investigated. It was found that the weak coupling effect between adjacent silver nanowiresis the main factor that influence their macroscopic light transmittance when they are used for transparent conductive films. These research findings provided an important theoretical and experimental guidance for the development of transparent conductive films with ultra-high light transmittance which is highly expected in flexible electronics.
This work was published in Nanoscale as an outer cover article entitled “Seeds screening aqueous synthesis, multiphase interfacial separation and in situ optical characterization of invisible ultrathin silver nanowires”. (Nanoscale, 2018, 10: 15468-15484). Before this achievement, Prof. Zhang’s group has published several papers in the research field of plasmonic nanostructure design and synthesis. (Silver nanoplate aggregation based multifunctional black metal absorbers for localization, photothermic harnessing enhancement and omnidirectional light antireflection,Journal of Materials Chemistry C,2018, 6 (5), 989-999; Synthesis of silver nanoplate based two-dimension plasmonic platform from 25 nm to 40 μm: growth mechanism and optical characteristic investigation in situ, RSC Advances, 2017, 7 (88), 55680-55690; Seeds triggered massive synthesis and multi-step room temperature post-processing of silver nanoink—application for paper electronics, RSC Advances, 2017, 7 (1), 8-19; Investigation on the role of the molecular weight of polyvinyl pyrrolidone in the shape control of high-yield silver nanospheres and nanowires, Nanoscale research letters, 2014, 9 (1), 17; Self-assembly of large-scale and ultrathin silver nanoplate films with tunable plasmon resonance properties, ACS Nano, 2011, 5 (11), 9082-9092)
