Versatile Molecular Silver Ink Platform for Printed Flexible Electronics

A silver molecular ink platform formulated for screen, inkjet, and aerosol jet printing is presented. A simple formulation comprising silver neodecanoate, ethyl cellulose, and solvent provides improved performance versus that of established inks, yet with improved economics. Thin, screen printed traces with exceptional electrical (<10 m Omega/square/mil or 12 mu Omega.cm) and mechanical properties are achieved following thermal or photonic sintering, the latter having never been demonstrated for silver-salt-based inks. Low surface roughness, submicron thicknesses, and line widths as narrow as 41 mu m outperform commercial ink benchmarks based on flakes or nanoparticles. These traces are mechanically robust to flexing and creasing (less than 10% change in resistance) and bind strongly to epoxy-based adhesives. Thin traces are remarkably conformal, enabling fully printed metal insulator metal band-pass filters. The versatility of the molecular ink platform enables an aerosol jet-compatible ink that yields conductive features on glass with 2X bulk resistivity and strong adhesion to various plastic substrates. An inkjet formulation is also used to print top source/drain contacts and demonstrate printed high-mobility thin film transistors (TFTs) based on semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. TFTs with mobility values of similar to 25 cm(2)V(-1) s(-1) and current on/off ratios >10(4) were obtained, performance similar to that of evaporated metal contacts in analogous devices.