Conductive Improvement of Flexography Printed Silver Pattern by Water Washing

Abstract

This work demonstrates a simple method to improve the conductivity of flexography printed silver pattern by water washing. The flexography printed silver pattern was firstly dried in an oven under 120 celsius degree, then was placed into the deionized water. Heating post-treatment is used to enhance adhesion between the printed silver layer and the substrate film to prevent the detachment of the silver pattern during water washing. The method is compatible with the PET substrate and printed fine pattern of square and hexagon in room temperature. After 2 hour immersion in water under magnetic stirring, the printed silver pattern of square and hexagon show different conductive improvement of conductivity. The silver pattern of hexagon shape with water washing exhibits much better conductivity than the one wiped by lens wipe paper, as measured by using a multimeter. The confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) shows that the morphology of the two shapes of silver pattern was almost no changed, except a little decrease on the thickness of the silver layer.