Steven DiGregorio1,Subbarao Raikar1,Owen Hildreth1
Colorado School of Mines1
Steven DiGregorio1,Subbarao Raikar1,Owen Hildreth1
Colorado School of Mines1
Printed electronics afford greater flexibility, fewer processing steps, and less material waste over other electronic manufacturing techniques. Printed electronics often rely on particle-based metal inks that have the downside of high processing temperatures. Even low-temperature silver pastes require temperatures above 200 °C, making them incompatible with some polymers used in flexible electronics. Reactive inks are particle-free conductive inks that can achieve highly conductive metal layers at temperatures as low as 60 °C. Reactive inks contain metal complexes that reduce to metallic films upon printing. The underlying reduction mechanisms are crucial for designing high-performance inks but are not well understood for reactive inks with self-reducing functions. This work investigates the interplay between thermal and evaporative reduction mechanisms in self-reducing reactive silver inks to understand their impact on film morphology and electrical resistivity. We also investigate the bending durability of films with different morphologies to demonstrate the applicability of reactive inks for flexible electronics.