Use of Nanocellulose to Produce Water-Based Conductive Inks with Ag NPs for Printed Electronics

The need for more sustainable printed electronics has emerged in the past years. Due to this, the use of nanocellulose (NC) extracted from cellulose has recently been demonstrated to provide interesting materials such as functional inks and transparent flexible films due to its properties. Its high specific surface area together with the high content of reactive hydroxyl groups provide a highly tailorable surface chemistry with applications in ink formulations as a stabilizing, capping, binding and templating agent. Moreover, NC mechanical, physical and thermal properties (high strength, low porosity and high thermal stability, respectively) provide an excellent alternative for the currently used plastic films. In this work, we present a process for the production of water-based conductive inks that uses NC both as a template for silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) formation and as an ink additive for ink formulation. The new inks present an electrical conductivity up to 2 x 10(6) S/m, which is in the range of current commercially available conductive inks. Finally, the new Ag NP/NC-based conductive inks have been tested to fabricate NFC antennas by screen-printing onto NC-coated paper, demonstrating to be operative.

Automated summary

The need for more sustainable printed electronics has led to the exploration of nanocellulose (NC) as a potential material for functional inks and transparent flexible films. NC's unique properties, such as high surface area and reactive hydroxyl groups, make it a versatile additive in ink formulations. Additionally, NC's mechanical, physical, and thermal properties make it an excellent alternative to plastic films. In this study, water-based conductive inks were developed using NC as a template for silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and as an additive for ink formulation. The new inks exhibited conductivity levels similar to commercially available conductive inks, and were successfully used to fabricate NFC antennas on NC-coated paper.