A team of engineers out of Oregon State University has introduced a new method of producing the highly conductive material silver, for printed electronics that are produced at room temperature.
Should it reach a stage of actual implementation, this new process could see applications in microelectronics, sensors, energy devices, low emissivity coatings, and transparent displays.
There are plenty of reasons why silver is favored by manufacturers over other materials. For one, it is highly conductive; it is also incredibly efficient and typically stays cool. A problem manufacturers have run into of late is they must use high temperature fabrication techniques to make today’s more complex devices. This not only adds to the cost and complexity of the manufacturing process, it also makes the devices themselves unsuitable for use on substrates like plastic, which would melt, or papers, which will burn.
“There's a great deal of interest in printed electronics, because they're fast, cheap, can be done in small volumes and changed easily,” explains Chih-hung Chang, a professor in the OSU College of Engineering. “But the heat needed for most applications of silver nanoparticles has limited their use.”
The OSU team solved this problem by using a microreactor to create silver nanoparticles at room temperature — sans protective coating — and then immediately printed them on to all sorts of different substrates with a continuous flow process.
“Because we could now use different substrates such as plastics, glass or even paper, these electronics could be flexible, very inexpensive and stable,” Chang said. “This could be quite important and allow us to use silver in many more types of electronic applications.”
Among the more promising technologies that could benefit from this new process are solar cells, printed circuit boards, low-emissivity coatings, and transparent electronics.
Worth pointing out—the microchannel applicator used in the system also allows for the creation of smaller, more complex electronics features.
The team has applied for a patent on the technology which, it should be noted, is now available for further commercial development.
A fully report was published in Journal of Materials Chemistry C.
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