Inkjet-printed electronics using metal particles typically lack electrical conductivity and interfacial adhesion with an underlying substrate. To address the inherent issues of printed materials, this Research Article introduces advanced materials and processing methodologies. Enhanced adhesion of the inkjet-printed copper (Cu) on a flexible polyimide film is achieved by using a new surface modification technique, a nanostructured self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane. A standardized adhesion test reveals the superior adhesion strength (1192.27 N/m) of printed Cu on the polymer film, while maintaining extreme mechanical flexibility proven by 100 000 bending cycles. In addition to the increased adhesion, the nanostructured SAM treatment on printed Cu prevents formation of native oxide layers. The combination of the newly synthesized Cu ink and associated sintering technique with an intense pulsed ultraviolet and visible light absorption enables ultrahigh conductivity of printed Cu (2.3 × 10 −6 Ω•cm), which is the highest electrical conductivity reported to date. The comprehensive materials engineering technologies offer highly reliable printing of Cu patterns for immediate use in wearable flexible hybrid electronics. In vivo demonstration of printed, skin-conformal Cu electrodes indicates a very low skin-electrode impedance (<50 kΩ) without a conductive gel and successfully measures three types of biopotentials, including electrocardiograms, electromyograms, and electrooculograms.
In recent times, electronics have been increasingly minimized, and hence, heat dissipation has become essential. Owing to its high thermal conductivity and superior electrical insulation, hexagonal‐boron nitride (h‐BN) has been regarded as an appropriate ceramic material to increase the thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites for effective heat dissipation. However, the poor through‐plane thermal conductivity of h‐BN severely restricts its practical uses, and it is favorable for heat to radiates in the in‐plane direction. In this study, densified spherical h‐BN (sph‐BN) microspheres, composed of as‐synthesized nano‐sized h‐BN (nano‐BN), were manufactured by a spray‐drying process with variations in organic and/or inorganic binders followed by sintering. After incorporating various sph‐BN particles as fillers into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the through‐plane thermal conductivity of composites embedded with sph‐BN, assisted by a sodium silicate binder, enhanced the highest through‐plane and in‐plane thermal conductivities. The composites exhibited high thermal isotropy (through‐plane thermal conductivity/in‐plane thermal conductivity: ) of 0.77. The out‐of‐plane thermal conductivity of the composites was remarkably enhanced by over 2000% compared with pristine PDMS, which can be attributed to the synergy combined with the synthesis of the densified spherical BN initiated by nano‐BN, sintering, and the application of inorganic binders. This study proposes a simple method to prepare polymer composites with h‐BN that exhibit high through‐plane thermal conductivity and are promising materials for heat removal in electronics.
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