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“Invisible” Silver Tracks Produced by Combining Hot‐Embossing and Inkjet Printing
Author(s) -
Hendriks Chris E.,
Smith Patrick J.,
Perelaer Jolke,
van den Berg Antje M. J.,
Schubert Ulrich S.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.200601062
Subject(s) - materials science , polycarbonate , inkwell , polystyrene , embossing , electrical conductor , composite material , silver nanoparticle , inkjet printing , silicon , nanotechnology , conductive ink , polymer , nanoparticle , optoelectronics , sheet resistance , layer (electronics)
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. droplet 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 µm. 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.