2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
Alternative Sintering Processes and Their Influence on the Electrical Resistance of Printed Ag Nanoparticle Conductive Networks
While post-printing treatment is essential for printed electronics to achieve high device performance, the evaluation of different sintering techniques has been fragmented and mostly qualitative, leaving their effects on device transport properties unclear. This study systematically examines four distinct sintering methods, thermal, vacuum, chemical, and photonic (ultraviolet light), to quantitatively evaluate their performance and feasibility in large-scale fabrication of printed electronics. In particular, we systematically studied chemical sintering by quantifying the role of chemical agents in the device's conductivity, which led to the identification of HCl vapor in optimizing the electrical conductivity of printed silver devices. As a proof of concept, a flexible strain sensor was successfully printed and sintered chemically. While this work does not intend to cover all existing sintering methods for printed electronics, our findings do offer a detailed evaluation, shedding light on how different sintering approaches can concretely affect the performance and quality of printed electronic components and architecture.