Silver nanowire transparent electrodes for liquid crystal-based smart windows

A significant manufacturing cost of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) smart windows results from the use of indium tin oxide (ITO) as the transparent electrode. In this work, films of silver nanowires are proposed as an alternative electrode and are integrated into PDLC smart windows. Both the materials and fabrication costs of the nanowire electrodes are significantly less than that of ITO electrodes. Additionally, nanowire electrodes are shown to exhibit superior electro-optical characteristics. The transmittance of a nanowire electrode-based PDLC smart window is both higher in the on-state and lower in the off-state compared to an equivalent device fabricated using ITO. Furthermore, it is found that a lower external field strength (voltage) is required to actuate the nanowire-based smart window.