Chang Hung-Shuo, Feng Pan, Lyu Yadong, Lin Chiao-Chi
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 21189, People's Republic of China.
Nanotechnology. 2022 Jan 18;33(15). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac4758.
In realistic applications, silver nanowires (AgNWs) are encapsulated in optoelectrical devices to function as transparent conductors and electrodes. Environmental stressors along with the essential electrical stress are inevitably harmful to the AgNWs inside the devices. Herein, to investigate the degradation behavior discrepancy between materials-level and device-level tests, we adopted pseudo-module to mimic the encapsulation. The pseudo-module allows the application of electrical stress and facilitates the interim specimen access for materials characterization through assembly-disassembly. Indoor accelerated and outdoor weathering tests with applied electrical stress to the pseudo-module encapsulated AgNW networks were performed. The impaired optoelectrical properties and morphological changes of AgNWs due to multiple or individual stressor(s) are investigated. Results indicate UVA exposure at elevated temperature coupled with electrical stress is responsible for the electrical failure of AgNW networks. Sulfidation that depresses optical transparency of AgNW networks is prone to occur at lower temperature. This work provides unambiguous degradation behaviors of AgNWs inside encapsulants, helping to improve the design of AgNWs related optoelectrical devices in the applications of solar irradiation environments.
在实际应用中，银纳米线（AgNWs）被封装在光电器件中用作透明导体和电极。除了基本的电应力外，环境应力源不可避免地会对器件内部的AgNWs造成损害。在此，为了研究材料级和器件级测试之间的降解行为差异，我们采用伪模块来模拟封装。该伪模块允许施加电应力，并通过组装 - 拆卸方便对中间样品进行材料表征。对封装有AgNW网络的伪模块进行了施加电应力的室内加速和室外老化测试。研究了由于多种或单个应力源导致的AgNWs光电性能受损和形态变化。结果表明，在高温下暴露于紫外线并施加电应力是导致AgNW网络电失效的原因。在较低温度下，会容易发生降低AgNW网络光学透明度的硫化现象。这项工作明确了密封剂内部AgNWs的降解行为，有助于改进在太阳辐射环境应用中与AgNWs相关的光电器件的设计。
