Growth of graphene/Ag nanowire/graphene sandwich films for transparent touch-sensitive electrodes

In this paper, a novel graphene/Ag nanowires/graphene (G/Ag NWs/G) sandwich film was directly grown on a conventional glass substrate by use of a technique of low temperature (600 °C) plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) combined with solvothermal and modified Hummers methods. The as-grown G/Ag NWs/G/glass sandwich film is uniform, smooth, touchable, transparent and conductive with an optical transmission 77.6% and a low sheet resistance ∼10.8 Ω/sq. The top graphene layer exhibits an effective role for improving the touchable and antioxidant properties of Ag NWs, while the bottom graphene layer enhances the binding stability of Ag NWs with substrate. The sheets resistance of G/Ag NWs/G/glass film exposed to the air for 72 h at 95 °C increases from 10.8Ω/sq to 14.6Ω/sq. These indicate a great promising in replacing the expensive and fragile indium tin oxide (ITO) glass and ITO film for touchable transparent electrode applications.