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Conductive silver ink has been used recently in numerous electronics applications. They normally comes in liquid and desires curing usually by heating to disclose its metallic constituents where solvent residues still require a few hours to vaporize completely. Hence, this paper discusses the investigation of using halogen lamp as curing substitute since it is capable of generating higher temperature by controlling its input power which potentially reduces curing time. The curing parameters were identified and their effect to conductivity, adherence and hardness level of the ink track were evaluated. It was found that halogen lamp is capable of producing high temperature by controlling its input power via dimmer and the temperature was observed to be directly proportional to input power. The time required to cure the ink was reduced when the temperature increased. The optimum temperature and time to cure silver conductive ink was at 130°C for 100 minutes, and the minimum resistance obtained was 1.1Ω with less damaged polymer substrate. It is proven that the halogen lamp could be used as a preference curing process to properly cure silver conductive ink on polymer substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barcodes and NFC have become the de facto standards in the field of automatic identification and data capture. These standards have been widely adopted for many applications, such as mobile payments, advertisements, social sharing, admission control, and so on. Recently, considerable demands require the integration of these two codes (barcode and NFC code) into a single tag for the functional complementation. To achieve the goal of "one tag, two codes" (OTTC), this work proposes CoilCode, which takes advantage of the printed electronics to fuse an NFC coil antenna into a QR code on a single layer. The proposed code could be identified by cameras and NFC readers. With the use of the conductive inks, QR code and NFC code have become an essential part of each other: the modules of the QR code facilitate the NFC chip in harvesting energy from the magnetic field, while the NFC antenna itself represents bits of the QR code. Compared to the prior dual-layer OTTC, CoilCode is more compact, cost-effective, fiimsy, flexible, and environment-friendly, and also reduces the fabrication complexity considerably. We prototyped hundreds of CoilCodes and conducted comprehensive evaluations (across 4 models of NFC chips and 8 kinds of NFC readers under 13 different system configurations). CoilCode demonstrates high-quality identification results for QR code and NFC functions on a wide range of inputs and under different distortion effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) ink is receiving great interests by researchers worldwide owing to its potential as sintering tracks in flexible electronics application using the inkjet-printed technology. However, for an effective functionality, the silver nanoparticles used must be of size <100nm to prevent the clogging of nozzle ink-jet printer. In order to fulfil the growing demands for inkjet printable nanoparticle-based conductive inks, this research work silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized using chemical reduction method. Silver nitrate (AgNO3), ascorbic acid and tri-sodium citrate acid were used as silver precursor and reducing agent to synthesize the AgNPs, respectively. The aim of this study is to fabricate AgNPs conductive ink in different organic solvents (ethanol, acetone and ethylene glycol). Morphology images of the synthesized AgNPs obtained from SEM analysis displayed a particle size distribution of 30 nm – 80 nm, which is satisfactory and favourable to be used as conductive ink. XRD analysis of the synthesized samples had confirmed the presence of silver. A silver linear conductor trace was produced on a paper substrate with a brush. The highest electrical conductivity of 2.48 x 10^−2 S/m was shown by AgNPs in ethanol solvent compared to other solvents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poor dispersibility of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in water is a serious obstacle towards development of water-based conductive ink. Therefore, the addition of tertiary phase became necessary to promote such dispersion. In this work, MWCNT ink was synthesized using alkali lignin (AL) as a dispersing agent and water as a solvent. UV-Visible analysis and zeta potential measurement were used to assess the dispersion degree and stability of the alkali lignin-coated MWCNT (AL/MWCNT) by varying the concentration of AL from 0.1 to 1.0 ppm. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) was used to visualize the morphology of AL/CNT ink. Results obtained strongly suggest that MWCNT ink containing approximately 0.5 – 0.8 ppm of AL reduced the size of MWCNT agglomerates and promoted good dispersibility and long-term stability of the ink. AL concentration above or below this value will destabilize the system. This ink has a great potential for many printed electronics applications, such as flexible display systems, sensors, photovoltaic cells, and radio frequency identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) have inherent optical and electronic properties and hence they find potential applications in the fields of printed electronic technologies, electronic device fabrication, sensors and conductive ink based electronic devices. Synthesis of pure Cu NPs through bottom up wet chemical route is a tough task because copper is highly prone to the surface oxidation and copper oxide is a very stable form at ambient conditions. In this work, crystalline metallic Cu NPs are synthesized in a one-step, eco-friendly route with L-ascorbic acid as both stabilizing and antioxidant agent and sodium borohydride as the reducing agent at the room temperature, without any inert atmosphere conditions. The structural properties of Cu NPs are studied using XRD, FTIR, FE-SEM etc. Optical properties of Cu NPs are probed through UV-Visible and fluorescent spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processing difficulties exemplify a bottleneck for those applications that demand well dispersed, concentrated and pristine graphene solutions. In view of that, there remains an ongoing research for an improved approach to synthesize graphene solutionsappropriate for inkjet printing and related applications. In light of foregoing, the objective of the present report is to present an economical, rapid and scalable methodology for the preparation of graphene dispersionsusing economicalorganic solvents for a wide range of applicationsin the field of printing technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non particle nano Ag conductive ink is a promising material for the patterning of flexible circuits by using the electrohydrodynamic micro printing technology. The pulse voltage control mold has been mainly used in the on demand droplet control in the patterning process. In this paper, the effect of pulse voltage amplitude on cone jetting behavior of this ink in one pulse period has been investigated by using the sequential images technology. Results indicated that under the same base direct current voltage applied on the nozzle, the pulse voltage applied on the substrate induced pulsant cone jetting rather than stable cone jetting in a pulse period if the value is under a critical value. When the voltage amplitude above this critical value was used, the stable cone jetting was obtained for each ejection. The increasing voltage amplitude resulted in the shortening of jetting starting time and also the ending time, and the jetting duration was decreased with the increasing of pulse voltage amplitude. Therefore, the jetting volume can be adjusted by adjusting the applied voltage amplitude. In addition, the profile evolution of the meniscus as the effect of pulse voltage has also been analysed by using a special designed analysis soft ware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the steps necessary in digital textile printing from fabric selection and pretreatment to fixation and post treatment option. The importance of preparing the fabrics for printing before they can be prepared for digital printing is tackled. Also discussed are the factors to be considered when selecting the appropriate digital ink to use.

This paper demonstrates the use of inkjet printing as a digital fabrication tool for the cost effective manufacture of radio frequency identification (RFID tags on low-cost flexible and porous substrates. The design presented in this work is a thin, substrate tolerant UHF RFID tag that can be mounted directly onto the skin surface in the form of a transfer patch in the same way that a temporary tattoo is applied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]