US Patent 8018563 - Transparent conductors formed from metallic nanowires

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8018563.html

Transparent electrical conductors are an important component of plasma and LCD displays but conventional materials used for this purpose such as indium tin oxide are costly to produce and are fragile. This patent from Cambrios teaches how silver nanowires or gold nanotubes can be used to produce transparent conductors with improved properties. Claim 1 reads:

1. A composite transparent conductor comprising:

a primary conductive medium including a plurality of nanostructures, the nanostructures being metal nanowires or metal nanotubes; and

a secondary conductive medium coupled to the primary conductive medium, the secondary conductive medium including a metal oxide film,

wherein the plurality of nanostructures are below an electrical percolation threshold.