Electrohydrodynamic jet printing and a preliminary electrochemistry test of graphene micro-scale electrodes

Abstract

This paper reports the use of electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing technique for producing a wide range of graphene micro-scale structures. Ethyl cellulose-dispersed graphene ink and Nafion-dispersed graphene ink were prepared and used for E-Jet printing. A glass slide and PDMS substrate were used for E-Jet printing of graphene ink. The E-jet printed graphene micro-scale structures using ethyl cellulose-dispersed graphene ink presented a feature of center arrayed graphene surrounded by the track of evaporated solution. However, the E-Jet printed graphene structures using Nafion-dispersed graphene ink exhibited uniform arranged features. It was observed that the resistivity of the graphene structures printed from the ethyl cellulose-dispersed graphene ink was much lower than that from the Nafion-dispersed graphene ink. In addition, the graphene micro-scale electrodes were E-Jet printed for preliminary electrochemical applications. The results showed that the graphene micro-scale electrodes had a distinct response for the lead ion. Furthermore, a Pt/graphene composite electrode was formed and an electrochemistry test was conducted. It was found that the Pt /graphene composite electrode had a more sensitive response compared with the pure Pt electrode for electrochemical sensing.