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Planar and Three-Dimensional Printing of Conductive Inks
Published on: December 9, 2011
Stable aqueous based Cu nanoparticle ink for printing well-defined highly conductive features on a plastic substrate
Sunho Jeong1, Hae Chun Song, Won Woo Lee
1Device Materials Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology , 19 Sinseongno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-600, Korea.
Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids
|February 23, 2011
Summary
Researchers developed a novel aqueous copper (Cu) ink for inkjet printing highly conductive patterns on plastics. This water-based ink offers advantages over organic solvents, enabling precise printing of fine conductive features with enhanced stability.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Additive Manufacturing
Background:
- Conventional copper inks often use organic solvents, posing environmental and safety concerns.
- Achieving high conductivity and well-defined features with copper nanoparticles on plastic substrates remains challenging.
- Inkjet printing offers a precise and scalable method for fabricating conductive patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel aqueous-based copper ink for inkjet printing highly conductive and well-defined features on plastic substrates.
- To investigate the advantages of aqueous-based ink properties (high surface tension, low boiling point) for printing fine conductive patterns.
- To analyze the long-term oxidation stability of the aqueous-based copper ink.
Main Methods:
- Preparation of an aqueous-based copper ink using water-soluble copper nanoparticles with a thin surface oxide layer.
- Inkjet printing of conductive copper features on plastic substrates.
- Characterization of printed features' surface morphology, microstructure, conductivity, and line width.
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis to assess the ink's long-term oxidation stability.
Main Results:
- The aqueous-based copper ink successfully enabled inkjet printing of highly conductive and well-defined copper features on plastic substrates.
- The ink's properties, derived from water's characteristics, facilitated printing of narrow conductive patterns without irregular morphologies, outperforming organic solvent-based inks.
- The study demonstrated a clear correlation between ink design and the properties of the printed conductive features.
- XPS analysis provided insights into the evolution of the surface oxide layer, indicating the ink's long-term stability against oxidation.
Conclusions:
- Aqueous-based copper ink formulation is a viable and advantageous alternative to organic solvent-based inks for inkjet printing conductive features on plastics.
- The developed ink facilitates precise fabrication of high-performance conductive patterns with improved morphology and stability.
- This advancement holds potential for applications requiring cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and high-resolution printed electronics.
