Vaseem and Garret's work on Silver-Organo-Complex ink in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

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The paper entitled "Robust Design of a Particle-Free Silver-Organo-Complex Ink with High Conductivity and Inkjet Stability for Flexible Electronics" is accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (Impact Factor: 6.723). This work was carried out by Dr. Mohammed Vaseem in collaboration with Garret McKerricher.

Abstract: Currently, silver-nanoparticle-based inkjet ink is commercially available. This type of ink has several serious problems such as a complex synthesis protocol, high cost, high sintering temperatures (∼200 °C), particle aggregation, nozzle clogging, poor shelf life, and jetting instability. For the emerging field of printed electronics, these shortcomings in conductive inks are barriers for their widespread use in practical applications. Formulating particle-free silver inks has the potential to solve these issues and requires careful design of the silver complexation. The ink complex must meet various requirements, such as in situ reductions, optimum viscosity, storage, and jetting stability, smooth uniform sintered films, excellent adhesion, and high conductivity. This study presents a robust formulation of silver–organo-complex (SOC) ink, where complexing molecules act as reducing agents. The 17 wt % silver loaded ink was printed and sintered on a wide range of substrates with uniform surface morphology and excellent adhesion. The jetting stability was monitored for 5 months to confirm that the ink was robust and highly stable with consistent jetting performance. Radiofrequency inductors, which are highly sensitive to metal quality, were demonstrated as a proof of concept on flexible PEN substrate. This is a major step toward producing high-quality electronic components with a robust inkjet printing process.