Thermoformable Conductive Compositions for Printed Electronics
Source abstract
Abstract
The development of three-dimensional printed electronics has garnered significant interest due to the ease of integration of electronic circuitry on 3D surfaces. However, it is still very challenging to achieve the desired conformability, stretchability, and adhesion of conductive pastes used for printing on thermoformable substrates. In this study, we propose the use of novel thermoformable ink composed of copper flakes coated with silver, which enables us to prevent the oxidation of copper, instead of the commonly used silver inks. Various polymer/solvent/flake systems were investigated, resulting in thermoformable conductive printing compositions that can be sintered under air. The best inks were screen printed on PC substrates and were thermoformed using molds with different degrees of strain. The effects of the various components on the thermoforming ability and the electrical properties and morphology of the resulting 3D structures were studied. The best inks resulted in a low sheet resistivity, 100 mΩ/□/mil and 500 mΩ/□/mil before and after thermoforming at 20%, respectively. The feasibility of using the best ink was demonstrated for the fabrication of a thermoformable 3D RFID antenna on PC substrates.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials · Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies · Nanomaterials and Printing Technologies
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
School of Materials Sciene and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Singapore-HUJ Alliance for Research and Enterprise (SHARE), The Smart Grippers for Soft Robotics (SGSR) Programme, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore 138602, Singapore
Casali Center for Applied Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Edmond J. Safra Campus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Funding
National Research Foundation
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