NU 2015-104
Inventors
Ethan B. Secor
Bok Y. Ahn
Jennifer A. Lewis
Mark C. Hersam*
Short Description
Novel grapheme ink annealing technique compatible with various range of substrates offering rapid manufacturing of printed electronics
Abstract
Conductive inks represent a significant global market, and are critical for emerging applications in printed and flexible electronics. Graphene is a particularly attractive material for inks, offering electrical conductivity, chemical and environmental stability, and mechanical flexibility. Currently, high-performance graphene inks using polymer stabilizers such as ethyl cellulose require post-processing by thermal annealing, a slow process incompatible with many desirable substrates such as paper and plastic foils. Northwestern researchers, by using intense pulse light (IPL) annealing technique have invented a way to integrate graphene inks on thermally-sensitive substrates commonly used for printed electronics. This alternative annealing technique selectively heats the graphene patterns, decomposing the polymer stabilizer ethyl cellulose to offer rapid post-processing compatible with roll-to-roll manufacturing and a wide range of substrates, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), polyimide (PI), and glass. Combining this method with improved ink formulation, high-concentration graphene inks are demonstrated with metrics that are among the best for non-metal printed conductors.
Applications
Advantages
Publication
Secor E, Ahn B, Gao T, Lewis J and Hersam M (2015) Rapid and Versatile Photonic Annealing of Graphene Inks for Flexible Printed Electronics. Advanced Materials. 27: 6683-8.
IP Status
Patent application has been filed