As we will proceed to move away from fossil fuels, an environmentally friendly, and industrially relevant fabrication of sustainable electronic devices is as topical than ever. Spray deposition is a fast and easy-to-implement technique, and already highly used in the industry to deposit thin, homogeneous films on a large scale. Functional nanocomposites are of high interest, as they combine favorable properties of different materials in a hybrid material. Here, we explore spray deposition to fabricate two types of thin, and transparent nanocomposite electrodes consisting of wood-based, lightweight, and flexible cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) as sustainable matrix material and highly conductive silver nanowires (AgNWs). Type I is a layered structure of an AgNW network sprayed on top of a thin CNF layer, while type II consists of a mixed layer of CNF and AgNW. We correlate the structural, morphological and electrical properties of both types using UV-Vis, SEM, AFM, grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS), and four-point conductivity measurements. Our results demonstrate that the mixed type II has a lower roughness, allows for earlier onset of conductivity and shows a lower sheet resistance than type I. Hence, the addition of CNFs to the AgNWs-solution upon spraying has beneficial templating effects on the electronic properties of the resulting AgNW network.

Fast fabrication of hybrid nanocellulose fibril-silver nanowire transparent electrodes via spray deposition

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