Conductive Nanomaterials for Printed Electronics

Abstract

This is a review on recent developments in the field of conductive nanomaterials and their application in printed electronics, with particular emphasis on inkjet printing of ink formulations based on metal nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and graphene sheets. The review describes the basic properties of conductive nanomaterials suitable for printed electronics (metal nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and graphene), their stabilization in dispersions, formulations of conductive inks, and obtaining conductive patterns by using various sintering methods. Applications of conductive nanomaterials for electronic devices (transparent electrodes, metallization of solar cells, RFID antennas, TFTs, and light emitting devices) are also briefly reviewed.

“Control-Alt-Delete”: Rebooting Solutions for the E-Waste Problem

“…150 The new materials such as carbon nanotube and phase-change materials will also propel the transistors to the forefront of future microchip technologies. 151 The transfer of new material reveals a distinctive potential of the considerable eliminating of the toxicity and the splendid enhancing of eco-design for electronics. 152 In a boarder perspective, organic electronics (or green electronics) is aiming at identifying compounds of natural origin and establishing economically efficient routes for the production of synthetic materials that have applicability in 153 Organic electronics may help to fulfill not only the original promise of organic electronics that is to deliver lowcost and energy efficient materials and devices but also achieve unimaginable functionalities for electronics, for example benign integration into life and environment.…”

Inkjet Printing Meets Electrochemical Energy Conversion

“…As a consequence, many efforts are made to suspend NPs by chemical modification of their surface or by the addition of surfactants or other species. [3] However, such additives can affect some properties of the printed film. For instance, it can lower its electrical conductivity, which requires the deposition of more layers or harsh post processing operations (e.g.…”

“…Moreover, when printing nanoparticle (NP) dispersions the situation becomes more complex. [3] Generally, NPs should be 100 times small- One advantage of printing metal salts is certainly the big range of precursor salts that can be applied and lead to combinatorial libraries composed of a huge variety of metal-composite oxides. A disadvantage is that often harsh post treatment procedures are required limiting the choice of substrates and ink additives.…”

“…[1][2][3] It is a fast and flexible technique operating at relatively low cost and can be scaled up to the industrial level, for instance by increasing the number of nozzles in the printheads. In printed electronics, an inkjet printer is generally considered as a 2D microfabrication device, but the third dimension can be achieved by multi-layer printing.…”

“…Inkjet printing has been used for instance to fabricate organic thin film transistors (OTFTs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), solar cells, supercapacitors, sensing devices and biomaterials. [3][4][5][6] Nowadays, it is used in many research laboratories and it is approaching the industrial production level.…”