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Infrared imaging is crucial for applications such as surveillance, search and rescue missions, healthcare and autonomous vehicles, offering the ability to visualize what the human eye cannot. Infrared technology is effective at detecting body heat, gas leaks and water content, even in conditions like smoke or darkness. However, a major challenge arises in the design of infrared cameras: they require electrical contacts to capture and transmit the images they detect.
Many materials that can conduct electrical signals, like metals, block infrared radiation, creating a fundamental conflict in the device’s design. Researchers at NYU Tandon School of Engineering have developed a new solution: a transparent electrode made by embedding tiny silver wires into a transparent plastic matrix. This design allows infrared detectors to function without blocking infrared light.
New electrode material improves infrared imaging
The team’s work, recently published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, addresses this fundamental issue in infrared detector technology. The electrode material is made by embedding silver nanowires, each about the width of a human hair, into a polymer matrix, creating a transparent, flexible material that can be easily applied to conventional infrared detectors.
The novel electrode is a significant advancement, offering better performance than traditional materials like indium tin oxide (ITO) or thin metal films, which either suffer from poor electrical properties or lack transparency at longer infrared wavelengths.
“We’ve developed a material that solves a fundamental problem that has been limiting infrared detector design,” said Ayaskanta Sahu, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) at NYU Tandon and the study’s senior author. “Our transparent electrode material works well across the infrared spectrum, giving engineers more flexibility in how they build these devices.”
Enhancing infrared detectors with quantum dots
To test their material, the team implemented it into infrared cameras that use colloidal quantum dots – semiconductor particles that exhibit unique optical properties – as their active material. Quantum dots have recently garnered attention due to their role in technologies such as QLED television displays, as well as being the subject of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For their study, the researchers used mercury telluride quantum dots, which respond to infrared light.
The silver nanowires, embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix, form conductive networks even at low concentrations. The nanowires’ diameter is around 120 nanometers, with lengths between 10 and 30 micrometers. These networks allow infrared radiation to pass through the transparent electrode, while the nanowires simultaneously serve as the necessary wiring for electrical currents. The material is also flexible and can be manufactured at low temperatures, which is essential for the production of quantum dot-based detectors.
“Conventional electrodes in the infrared are like blackout curtains – most of the signal never reaches the sensor,” said graduate researcher Shlok J. Paul, a co-author on the study. “Our near-invisible web of silver nanowires lets more infrared photons in while doubling as the wiring that carries the electrical current needed to turn the invisible light into data. While there is more work to be done, the simplicity of this flexible layer could carry IR detection from the lab to commercial applications like for firefighter vision or self-driving cars.”
The researchers have filed a U.S. patent application covering their method of embedding silver nanowires in a polymer matrix for transparent infrared electrodes.
This work represents a significant step forward in the development of infrared imaging technologies, with potential uses across various fields, including safety and autonomous systems.
Reference: Paul SJ, Mølnås H, Farrell SL, Parashar N, Riedo E, Sahu A. Plenty of room at the top: exploiting nanowire – polymer synergies in transparent electrodes for infrared imagers. J Mater Chem C. 2025;13(21):10592-10601. doi: 10.1039/D5TC00581G
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