Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Ink Printed Composite Electrodes on Plastic Substrates

Abstract

Printed flexible electrodes with conductive inks have attracted much attention in wearable electronics, flexible displays, radio-frequency identification, etc. Conventional conductive inks contain large amount of polymer which would increase the electrical resistivity of as-printed electrodes and require high sintering temperature. Here, composite electrodes without cracks were printed on polyimide substrate using binder-free silver nanoparticle based inks with zero-dimensional (activated carbon), one-dimensional (silver nanowire and carbon nanotube) or two-dimensional (graphene) fillers. The effect of fillers on resistivity and flexibility of printed composite electrodes were evaluated. The graphene filler could reduce the resistivity of electrodes, reaching 1.7 × 10−7 Ω·m after low power laser sintering, while the silver nanowire filler improved their flexibility largely during bending tests. The microstructural changes were examined to understand the nanojoining process and their properties.

Photothermally Active Inorganic Nanoparticles: from Colloidal Solutions to Photothermally Active Printed Surfaces and Polymeric Nanocomposite Materials

“…Sintering is a critical finishing step in many nanotechnological processes that can take advantage of extreme photothermal efficiency and the decrease of the melting temperature of nanomaterials . For example, the photothermal properties of plasmonic silver nanoparticles were applied for laser sintering of printed patterns at low temperatures …”

A Review of Chipless Remote Sensing Solutions Based on RFID Technology

“…Some examples of their use can be found in the work of Ghosale et al [248], Park et al [249] and Kim et al [250]. Nanoparticle-based inks have impressive cyclic deformation properties, as discussed by Wang et al [251], making them suitable for flexible electronics, but care must be taken when selecting the correct nanoparticle to use in an ink. Nanoparticles such as copper nanoparticles are highly susceptible to oxidisation if they are not used with capping agents and the printing process is not carried out in an inert setting [247,252].…”

Joining Technology Innovations at the Macro, Micro, and Nano Levels

“…The aim is to provide solutions for the integration of diverse passive and active components on flexible (elastic) substrates for various applications from wearables to robotics, energy storage applications, bioelectronics, and functional textiles. Wang et al [44] reported the development of binder-free conductive composite inks with adjustable electrical and mechanical properties for flexible electronics applications. The developed binder-free composite inks were composed of silver nanoparticles, binary solvents, and conductive nanofillers of various architecture and composition.…”