An Investigation of Electrical Nickel Deposition on Copper Nanowires-Based Electrodes

Maintaining a stable source for supplying indium-tin-oxide (ITO) may be difficult for the currently enlarging market owing to the high cost and scarcity of indium. As a partial solution, employing transparent conductive electrodes with copper nanowires (Cu NWs) may reduce the use of indium. Unfortunately, the current problems associated with Cu NWs, which are aggregation, red color, and oxidation, are still big obstacles in the path of replacing ITO. Herein, we introduce an approach for electroplating Cu NWs networks with nickel using a Watts bath, which is known for its simplicity and efficiency. An investigation on plating parameters was conducted to subdue two main problems, which are network deformation and uneven distribution. Despite a small loss in transmittance, our nickel-coated electrodes not only exhibited excellent performance, but also constantly resisted oxidation even in high thermal condition. For instance, after plating process, a Cu NWs electrode which originally had had a sheet resistance of 30 omega/sq with a transmittance of 86% at a wavelength of 550 nm, had a sheet resistance of 24 omega/sq with a transmittance of 75% at the same wavelength and its conductive remained constant for more than a month.