Inkjet printing and 3D inkjet printing have found many applications in the fabrication of a great variety of devices, which have been developed with the aim to improve and simplify the design, fabrication, and performance of sensors and analytical platforms. Here, developments of these printing technologies reported during the last 10 years are reviewed and their versatile applicability for the fabrication of improved sensing platforms and analytical and diagnostic sensor systems is demonstrated. Illustrative examples are reviewed in the context of particular advantages provided by inkjet printing technologies. Next to aspects of device printing and fabrication strategies, the utilization of inkjet dispensing, which can be implemented into common analytical tools utilizing customized inkjet printing equipment as well as state‐of‐the‐art consumer inkjet printing devices, is highlighted. This review aims to providing a comprehensive overview of examples integrating inkjet and 3D inkjet printing technologies into device layout fabrication, dosing, and analytical applications to demonstrate the versatile applicability of these technologies, and furthermore, to inspire the utilization of inkjet printing for future developments.
The fabrication of supercapacitors and coin cells by means of inkjet printing based on the utilization of a commercially available graphite-based ink is reported. The printing steps have been optimized utilizing a commercial office inkjet printer. Adjustments to the printing conditions as well as optimizing the device layout enabled the fabrication of usable supercapacitors and details of the assembly and processing steps have been investigated. Studies included a careful tuning of the ink properties to obtain homogeneous electrodes, to optimize layer thickness and, as a consequence, performance of the supercapacitor devices. Finally, the performance of the printing process was cross-checked by the fabrication of a coincell layout. Special emphasis was placed on the printing process to establish a simple and readily applicable fabrication of prototype device layouts.
A commodity inkjet printer was modified to print layered ceramic structures on stiff glass substrates, using inks in the form of sols with mullite stoichiometry. The sol composition was optimized in terms of ink viscosity, surface tension, and evaporation properties. The ink was then fed into a multi-nozzle commodity printer head and deposited by ink-jetting. Thin lines without bulges with a thickness of ∼1.8 μm with concave profile and a line width of ∼100 μm were successfully printed on fused silica substrates. The presence of mullite was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and XRD after sintering of printed structures.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.