Low diffuse reflection of silver nanowire/ruthenium oxide nanosheet hybrid films for high-performance transparent flexible electrodes

Abstract: In this work, AgNW-RuO2 nanosheet hybrid TCEs with low diffuse reflections are fabricated using metallic RuO2 nanosheets as undercoats. RuO2 nanosheets with high refractive indices reduce the diffuse reflections of AgNWs by almost 8％, in accordance with theoretical prediction. Moreover, after the partial etching of AgNWs, the difference in the diffuse reflections of their etched and non-etched regions is equal to about 0.003％, leading to the formation of an invisible pattern. Additionally, the film consisting of micro-sized RuO2 nanosheets is not damaged, but instead forms a current path between different AgNWs broken by cyclic bending, resulting in a tenfold decrease in the resistance of the AgNW TCE after 170,000 cycles. Further, RuO2 nanosheets suppress the diffusion of humid air from the outside, thus improving the environmental stability of the AgNW-RuO2 nanosheet hybrid TCEs.