Thermally stable Ag@ZrO2 core-shell via atomic layer deposition

We investigated the microstructures and electrical properties of thermally stable ZrO2-coated Ag nanowires (NWs) under high temperatures of up to 600 °C. Although the ZrO2-coating layers on the Ag NWs were sub 1 nm (<10 cycles), we confirmed that the thermal stability of the Ag NWs was excellent even at the high temperature of 600 °C. After annealing at 600 °C, the sheet resistance of ZrO2-coated Ag NWs was extremely low (25 Ω/sq), while the sheet resistance of initial Ag NWs was very high (~1587 Ω/sq) due to the agglomeration phenomenon of Ag NWs.