Preparation of Nano Silver Paste and Applications in Transparent Electrodes via Electric-Field Driven Micro-Scale 3D Printing

Abstract

Nano-silver paste, as an important basic material for manufacturing thick film components, ultra-fine circuits, and transparent conductive films, has been widely used in various fields of electronics. Here, aiming at the shortcomings of the existing nano-silver paste in printing technology and the problem that the existing printing technology cannot achieve the printing of high viscosity, high solid content nano-silver paste, a nano-silver paste suitable for electric-field-driven (EFD) micro-scale 3D printing is developed. The result shows that there is no oxidation and settlement agglomeration of nano-silver paste with a storage time of over six months, which indicates that it has good dispersibility. We focus on the printing process parameters, sintering process, and electrical conductivity of nano-silver paste. The properties of the nano-silver paste were analyzed and the feasibility and practicability of the prepared nano-silver paste in EFD micro-scale 3D printing technology were verified. The experiment results indicate that the printed silver mesh which can act as transparent electrodes shows high conductivity (1.48 Ω/sq) and excellent transmittance (82.88%). The practical viability of the prepared nano-silver paste is successfully demonstrated with a deicing test. Additionally, the experimental results show that the prepared silver mesh has excellent heating properties, which can be used as transparent heaters.

Effects of Organic Vehicle on the Rheological and Screen-Printing Characteristics of Silver Paste for LTCC Thick Film Electrodes

“…It can be seen from Figure 7 a3–e3 and Figure 8 that the variation of minimum line width first decreases and then increases with the increase of EC content. Silver paste with 10 wt% EC obtained minimum line width of 13.27 µm, which is superior to the reported values shown in Table 2 [ 18 , 19 , 32 , 33 ], indicating that 10 wt% of EC should be the optimum composition.…”

“…In contrast, the low volatility of organic solvents is not good for the drying of silver paste and for obtaining fine patterns. Therefore, the mixed solution with low volatility at room temperature and high volatility at high temperature was preferred for the solvent of an organic vehicle [ 18 ]. The most commonly used solvents in an organic vehicle are ester alcohols and terpenes, such as terpineol or their mixtures with other solvents, and the slight change of solvent content will have a great influence on the rheological properties of silver paste [ 19 ].…”

Cost-Effective Fabrication of Transparent Strain Sensors via Micro-Scale 3D Printing and Imprinting

“…In this study, an efficient, low-cost, and mass-produced EFD micro-scale 3D printing [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ] and molding hybrid method is proposed to fabricate PDMS channel films. MWCNTs were filled into PDMS films with channel networks to prepare flexible strain sensors with high sensitivity, transparency, and stretchability.…”

Low Sintering Temperature Nano-Silver Pastes with High Bonding Strength by Adding Silver 2-Ethylhexanoate

“…The surface-to-volume ratio of nanoparticles is so large that they can be sintered at lower temperatures than bulk materials. Silver nanoparticles are used to prepare conductive inks and pastes due to this property [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. With a through-silicon via (TSV) connection, nano-silver pastes can bond chips together via copper-to-copper bonding.…”