A zinc-based shell for copper nanowires network to prevent oxidation

Although recent reported studies have shown that copper nanowires-based electrodes can replace the Indium Tin Oxide electrodes in the near future, their vulnerability to oxidation is a huge disadvantage and may slow down the replacing process. Herein, we introduced a facile and inexpensive approach to protect the copper nanowires with a thin layer of zinc oxide and brass. First, the copper nanowires were plated with zinc by applying an electroless plating technique, which is simple, controllable and guarantee an even distribution of Zn. Then a heat was applied to the electrodes in a short time to diffuse copper into zinc and form zinc oxide simultaneously. Through experiments, the final products exhibited high performance almost as well as the original electrodes while resisted well to oxidation corrosion.