Systematic Design of a Graphene Ink Formulation for Aerosol Jet Printing

Abstract

Aerosol jet printing is a noncontact, digital, additive manufacturing technique compatible with a wide variety of functional materials. Although promising, development of new materials and devices using this technique remains hindered by limited rational ink formulation, with most recent studies focused on device demonstration rather than foundational process science. In the present work, a systematic approach to formulating a polymer-stabilized graphene ink is reported, which considers the effect of solvent composition on dispersion, rheology, wetting, drying, and phase separation characteristics that drive process outcomes. It was found that a four-component solvent mixture composed of isobutyl acetate, diglyme, dihydrolevo­glucosenone, and glycerol supported efficient ink atomization and controlled in-line drying to reduce overspray and wetting instabilities while maintaining high resolution and electrical conductivity, thus overcoming a trade-off in deposition rate and resolution common to aerosol jet printing. Biochemical sensors were printed for amperometric detection of the pesticide parathion, exhibiting a detection limit of 732 nM and a sensitivity of 34 nA μM–1, demonstrating the viability of this graphene ink for fabricating functional electronic devices.

Tailoring Electrical Properties in Carbon Nanomaterial Patterns with Multimaterial Aerosol Jet Printing

“…The graphene ink was prepared by dispersing 10 mg mL –1 of the dry graphene/EC powder and 5 mg mL –1 of NC in one of two solvent mixtures: 9:9:2 isobutyl acetate/diglyme/Cyrene or 4:4:1:1 isobutyl acetate/diglyme/Cyrene/glycerol. The ink components were added to a vial and ultrasonically agitated overnight . The CNO ink contained 11.25 mg mL –1 of CNO powder, 5 mg mL –1 of NC, and 5 mg mL –1 of EC in the same solvent mixtures.…”

“…The ink components were added to a vial and ultrasonically agitated overnight. 21 The CNO ink contained 11.25 mg mL −1 of CNO powder, 5 mg mL −1 of NC, and 5 mg mL −1 of EC in the same solvent mixtures. Premixed composite inks were prepared with different overall solid loadings, using 11.25 mg mL −1 CNOs and the appropriate amount of graphene/EC powder based on the sample mixing ratio, which were added to 5 mg mL −1 NC and 5 mg mL −1 EC and dispersed via ultrasonic agitation in the 4:4:1:1 solvent mixture.…”

“…Two distinct carbon nanomaterials, namely, graphene and carbon nano-onions (CNOs), are formulated into inks and mixed in the aerosol phase during patterning. Although these nanomaterials both nominally possess carbon and share similarities in their surface chemistry, they exhibit distinct electrical properties and morphology. , The similarity in surface chemistry supports a matched solvent and binder system, which mitigates enthalpic effects that could prevent effective blending . Following benchmark evaluation of the individual inks, a series of composite inks are formulated with a controlled ratio of graphene and CNOs to evaluate modulation of electrical properties.…”

Aerosol‐Jet Printed Sensors for Environmental, Safety, and Health Monitoring: A Review

“…Point defects that are present within the crystal domain of the graphene lattice provide localized sites of high electrochemical activity for target analytes. To this end, several graphene ink formulations optimized for the AJP system have been reported [61][62][63] with studies noting that graphene/silver composite inks have considerably less resistivity than their pure counterparts. [64] Increasingly, polymer-based inks including conducting polyaniline, [65] polymer pixels, [66] solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs), [67] and poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) [68] have also been investigated using the AJP route as active sensing materials.…”

Hydrothermal Synthesis of Nickel Oxide and Its Application in the Additive Manufacturing of Planar Nanostructures

“…Printing technologies are an alternative to the above methods, which can considerably reduce the above limitations. Today, methods such as inkjet printing [ 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ], aerosol printing [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ], microplotter printing [ 59 , 60 , 61 ], microextrusion printing [ 62 , 63 , 64 ] and pen plotter printing [ 65 , 66 ] allow for the use of different types of inks (both true solutions and powder-based disperse systems) to form coatings of desired thickness and geometry on substrates of different natures. The above approaches are being actively developed in the context of obtaining materials for alternative energy, electronics, gas sensing, and optics.…”