Precursors for Atmospheric Plasma-Enhanced Sintering: Low-Temperature Inkjet Printing of Conductive Copper

Bidentate diamine and amino-alcohol ligands have been used to form solid, water-soluble, and air-stable monomeric copper complexes of the type [Cu(NH2CH2CH(R)Y)(2)(NO3)(2)] (1, R=H, Y=NH2; 2, R=H, Y=OH; 3, R=Me, Y=OH). The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Irrespective of their decomposition temperature, precursors 1-3 yield highly conductive copper features [1.5x10(-6) omega m (+/- 5x10(-7) omega m)] upon atmospheric-pressure plasma-enhanced sintering.