Nickel-enhanced silver nanowire-based transparent heater with large size

An effective process for homogeneous electrodeposition of nickel was developed to improve the performance of silver nanowire-based transparent heaters (AgNW-THs). After electroplating Ni, the silver nanowires are uniformly coated by a layer Ni with 20–40 nm thickness, which has a small effect on the device transmittance, but significantly enhances its conductivity. Most excitingly, the nickel shell leads to a great increase of the temperature toleration of the AgNW-THs. A transparent tubular heater with large size of 3 cm in diameter and 20 cm in length is successfully fabricated, showing excellent heating properties in that the steady-state temperature can reach 284.3 °C and there is minimal variance in temperature after 10 heating cycles, and by using this tube, red Cu powder was oxidized into black CuO in a short time, which was visually observed. Additionally, two other shapes of transparent heaters with large size were constructed for dehydration of CuSO4·5H2O and burning of red phosphorus, respectively. This kind of transparent heater has wide applications requiring high transmittance, excellent temperature toleration and large size, especially for teaching experiment apparatus in a visual model.