Silver nanowire inks for direct-write electronic tattoo applications.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Conductive traces for electronic tattoos require room-temperature printing on biological tissues.
• Existing conductive inks often need harmful post-processing and lack durability under mechanical stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop water-based silver nanowire inks for low-temperature, post-processing-free printing of conductive traces.
• To achieve high electrical performance and mechanical robustness in printed traces for biomedical applications.

Main Methods:

• Formulation of water-based inks using high aspect ratio silver nanowires.
• Room-temperature printing of conductive traces on various substrates, including biological tissues.
• Evaluation of electrical performance under bending strain and cyclic bending.

Main Results:

• Printed conductive traces demonstrated high electrical performance even with 50% bending strain and over 1000 bending cycles.
• The ink exhibited a rapid dry time of under 2 minutes, suitable for sensitive surfaces.
• Successful printing on non-planar surfaces like an apple and a human finger was achieved.

Conclusions:

• The developed silver nanowire inks enable robust, high-performance conductive trace printing at room temperature without harmful post-processing.
• These inks are ideal for direct printing on biological substrates, paving the way for electronic tattoos and biomedical devices.