‘‘Invisible’’ Silver Tracks Produced by Combining Hot-Embossing and Inkjet Printing
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Hendriks, Chris E.; Smith, Patrick J.; Perelaer, Jolke; van den Berg, Antje M. J.; Schubert, Ulrich S.
- Abstract:
- Hot-embossed features are prepared by pushing customized and standard silicon calibration gratings, known as masters, into
either polystyrene or polycarbonate, which are kept above their glass transition temperatures.Adroplet of a silver nanoparticle
ink is then dispensed over one of these as-formed grooves using an inkjet printer. The ink fills the grooves as a consequence of
capillary forces and is observed to form tracks with a uniform width. The tracks are described as ‘invisible’ on account of having
widths ranging from 5 to 15 mm. Wider tracks can be produced by dispensing more droplets and tracks with different
morphologies can be produced by using different masters. Several as-prepared features are thermally treated to produce
conductive silver tracks. The conductivity of the tracks is found to be 20% that of bulk silver.
- Year:
- 2008
- Type of Publication:
- Article
- Journal:
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Volume:
- 18
- Pages:
- 1031 - 1038