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A Water-Based Silver-Nanowire Screen-Print Ink for the Fabrication of Stretchable Conductors and Wearable Thin-Film Transistors

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials
 [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Henry Samuli School of Engineering and Applied Science and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering; UCLA
  2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Henry Samuli School of Engineering and Applied Science and Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Silver nanowire is a very promising material for fabricating compliant conductors which are essential for stretchable/wearable electronic devices. Screen printing is a cost-effective and scalable technology to fabricate large-area thin film coatings with modest pattern resolution. The biggest challenge to prepare a screen printable silver nanowire ink stems from the low viscosity of silver nanowire dispersions and that the addition of a thickening agent could dramatically increase the inter-nanowire contact resistance in the resulting coating. Herein, we report the synthesis of a water-based silver nanowire ink, which was formulated with low solid contents, high viscosity at 0.1 s-1 shear rate, and appropriate rheological behavior suitable for screen printing. Silver nanowire coating patterns were screen printed with uniform sharp edges, ~50 μm resolution, and electrical conductivity as high as 4.67 × 104 S cm-1. The screen printed silver nanowires were then used to fabricate a composite conductor that retained a conductivity greater than 10,000 S cm-1 under 70% tensile strain. Fully printed and stretchable/wearable thin-film transistor arrays were also fabricated by employing the screen printed composite conductor as the source, drain, and gate, drop cast semiconducting carbon nanotubes as the channel, and a dielectric elastomer. The 10 × 6 thin-film transistor arrays had a fabrication yield of 91.7%, average mobility of 33.8 ± 3.7 cm2V-1s-1, ON/OFF ratio ~1000, and remained stable during 1,000 cycles of wearing on and peeling off a glass tube with 5 mm diameter.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0006674
OSTI ID:
1429112
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Issue: 28 Vol. 28; ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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