Direct printing of silver nanoparticles by an agarose stamp on planar and patterned substrates

In this study, we have used an agarose stamp to conduct direct printing of silver nanoparticles, nanowires and nanoplates on both planar and structured substrates. Nanoparticle solution could be first coated on an agarose stamp, and then transferred to a planar substrate. Micro-patterns comprising metal nanoparticles could be printed on planar substrates without the formation of residual layers. Thus a three-dimensional metal microstructure could be easily fabricated. The patterning of electrodes by printing Ag nanowires directly on TiO(2) was also demonstrated to fabricate resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices by all-solution-processing methods. By using a flat agarose stamp, the patterns printed on the microstructured substrates were quite different from those on the nanostructured substrates. On the microstructured substrates, direct printing could print silver nanoparticles onto the protrusion surface, and could print silver layers as thick as several microns, useful for high conductivity electrodes. On the substrates with nanostructures such as photonic crystals or nano-gratings, direct printing could transfer nanoparticles into the grooves or cavities only due to the contact of the agarose stamp with the groove or concavity surface. A new approach to fabricate metal wire grid polarizers was further demonstrated. A nanoporous agarose stamp has a good potential for printing using nanoparticle suspension.