Polymer Surface Engineering for Efficient Printing of Highly Conductive Metal Nanoparticle Inks

Abstract

An approach to polymer surface modification using self-assembled layers (SALs) of functional alkoxysilanes has been developed in order to improve the printability of silver nanoparticle inks and enhance adhesion between the metal conducting layer and the flexible polymer substrate. The SALs have been fully characterized by AFM, XPS, and WCA, and the resulting printability, adhesion, and electrical conductivity of the screen-printed metal contacts have been estimated by cross-cut tape test and 4-point probe measurements. It was shown that (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane SALs enable significant adhesion improvements for both aqueous- and organic-based silver inks, approaching nearly 100% for PEN and PDMS substrates while exhibiting relatively low sheet resistance up to 0.1 Ω/sq. It was demonstrated that SALs containing functional -SH or -NH2 end groups offer the opportunity to increase the affinity of the polymer substrates to silver inks and thus to achieve efficient patterning of highly conductive structures on flexible and stretchable substrates.

MPTMS self-assembled monolayer deposition for ultra-thin gold films for plasmonics

“…In addition to improving the adhesion, the SAMs also help in achieving highly smooth gold films [21]. Earlier reports on vapour-and liquid-phase deposition of MPTMS monolayer involved a process time that was a few hours to 1 week long [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. For practical applications, one needs to have faster deposition methods that help the adhesion of gold to substrates as well as smooth, uniformly covered few monolayer gold films.…”

Layer by layer electroless deposition: An efficient route for preparing adhesion-enhanced metallic coatings on plastic surfaces

“…By using the hot chromic acid-sulfuric acid cleaning of plastic surface followed by activation with tin chloride and palladium chloride solutions, the conventional plating processes for metallization of polymer are commonly expensive and toxic [20,21]. Therefore, many latest studies [22][23][24][25] have been reported to develop low-cost and environmentally friendly methods for improvement of adhesion between metal coating and the substrate. For example, adhesion strength between metal conductive layer and a polymer was enhanced by sintering above a precise temperature, due to the interfacial fusion between metal film and the underlying polymer [26].…”

“…For example, adhesion strength between metal conductive layer and a polymer was enhanced by sintering above a precise temperature, due to the interfacial fusion between metal film and the underlying polymer [26]. Besides, flexible polymer substrates can be applied for oxygen-plasma treatment followed by self-assembling functional alkoxysilanes to form self-assembled layers (SAL), thus improving the interface adhesion [25]. However, many of the suggested methods have several disadvantages, including physical anchoring interface with limited adhesion, complicated equipment and long process time.…”

Influence of Silicodactyly in the Preparation of Hybrid Materials

“…3-Mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane and 3-mercaptopropyl(dimethoxy) methylsilane were obtained from TCI Europe and used as received. 3-Mercaptopropyl(methoxy)dimethylsilane was prepared by a slight modification of a reported procedure [27].…”