As transparent electrodes, patterned silver nanowire (AgNW) networks suffer from noticeable pattern visibility, which is an unsettled issue for practical applications such as display. Here, we introduce a Gibbs-Thomson effect (GTE)-based patterning method to effectively reduce pattern visibility. Unlike conventional top-down and bottom-up strategies that rely on selective etching, removal, or deposition of AgNWs, our approach focuses on fragmenting nanowires primarily at the junctions through the GTE. This is realized by modifying AgNWs with a compound of diphenyliodonium nitrate and silver nitrate, which aggregates into nanoparticles at the junctions of AgNWs. These nanoparticles can boost the fragmentation of nanowires at the junctions under an ultralow temperature (75{\deg}C), allow pattern transfer through a photolithographic masking operation, and enhance plasmonic welding during UV exposure. The resultant patterned electrodes have trivial differences in transmittance ({\Delta}T = 1.4%) and haze ({\Delta}H = 0.3%) between conductive and insulative regions, with high-resolution patterning size down to 10 {\mu}m. To demonstrate the practicality of this novel method, we constructed a highly transparent, optoelectrical interactive tactile e-skin using the patterned AgNW electrodes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.01549,
title = {Patterning Silver Nanowire Network via the Gibbs-Thomson Effect},
author = {Hongteng Wang and Haichuan Li and Yijia Xin and Weizhen Chen and Haogen Liu and Ying Chen and Yaofei Chen and Lei Chen and Yunhan Luo and Zhe Chen and Gui-Shi Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.01549},
year = {2025}
}