Fabrication of highly electrically conducting fine patterns via substrate-independent inkjet printing of mussel-inspired organic nano-material

We report the inkjet printing of an aqueous suspension of synthesized mussel-inspired poly(dopamine) nanoparticles. Fine lines of printed nanoparticles were deposited on both glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates by exploiting the coffee ring effect. Deposited particles were then used for site-selective silver metallization via a simple electroless plating process at controlled temperature (30 degrees C) and plating time (12min to 120min). The resulting narrow lines of silver exhibited a resistivity 10 x that of bulk silver. Lines on PET retained good electrical and adhesion performance even after prolonged bending tests. This technique satisfies general requirements of flexible electronics manufacturing -low temperature, low cost, small feature size and good electrical conductivity independent of substrate material.