Thermally stable and flexible transparent heaters based on silver nanowire-colorless polyimide composite electrode

• Thermally stable and flexible transparent heaters were obtained by burying Ag nanowires at colorless polyimide (cPI) surface via inverted layer processing.
• The embedment of nanowire at cPI showed enhanced optical performance, heating capability, and mechanical and thermal stability.

Transparent and flexible heaters are promising as flexible display components for their protection against adverse ambient conditions by defrosting or demisting the displays. Herein, we employ inverted layer processing to bury silver nanowires (AgNWs) at the surface of colorless polyimide (cPI), resulting in thermally stable and flexible transparent heaters. In comparison with conventional heaters with AgNWs surface-coated on cPI heaters, the embedded electrodes show enhanced optical performance, heating capability, and mechanical and thermal stability. All these enhancements were mainly ascribed to its unique structural configuration of nanowires fully embedded at the surface of heat-resistant cPI. This approach is therefore considered readily applicable to the fabrication of stable transparent heaters with high flexibility.

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