Abstract
Due to the high abundance of copper on the earth and its high intrinsic electrical conductivity, copper nanowires (CuNWs) represent a promising material for transparent electrodes. In this work, an environmentally friendly and scalable synthesis that requires a low process temperature is studied. The optimum temperature is found at 79 °C, which results in nanowires with the lowest diameters. The as-synthesized solution is sprayed to transparent conducting films, which are in turn subjected to various post-treatments such as thermal sintering or washing with propionic acid to enhance their electro-optical performance. Following both the optimum protocol for the synthesis and post-treatment, a sheet resistance of 10.3 Ω ◻−1 at a transparency of 83.4% is achieved. Moreover, the CuNW-films are tested as transparent heaters and show a homogeneous heat distribution. For the electrical properties of the films, a temperature dependence of resistance that is lowered around 28% compared to the one for bulk copper is found.