Self-Reducing Silver Ink on Polyurethane Elastomers for the Manufacture of Thin and Highly Stretchable Electrical Circuits
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Authors
Organisational units
External Organisational units
- Institute of Nanostructured Materials and Photonics, Joanneum Research
- Carinthian Tech Research AG
- Human Research Institute of Health Technology and Prevention Research
- AT and S AG
- Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science
Abstract
Stretchable conductive films were obtained by screen printing and thermal treatment of a homogenous ink comprising a thermally reducible silver formate complex, an acrylate monomer, and a radical initiator. In the curing process, both the filler nanoparticles and the polymer matrix are generated in situ, at temperatures as low as 100 °C. The obtained conductors, consisting of percolated silver nanoparticles embedded in a polymeric matrix, typically show a resistivity of (2–4) × 10–5 Ω·m. When applied on an elastomeric substrate, the composite is stretchable up to 200% with very low R/R0 values, which is unprecedented for stretchable silver composite inks. Quasi-in situ confocal laser scanning microscopy of the strained samples revealed an initial fracture strain above 40%, which is unusually high for metal–nanoparticle films. The described system was compared to some commercial stretchable screen-printing inks and proved superior with regard to both R/R0 and resistance to cyclic tensile loading.
Details
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2742-2755 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Chemistry of materials |
Volume | 33.2021 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Mar 2021 |