Preparation of a low temperature sintering silver nanoparticle ink and fabrication of conductive patterns on PET substrate

Abstract

A low temperature sinterable conductive ink was prepared using silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) as filler material. The polydisperse Ag NPs with diameters of 5–85 nm were synthesized using polyacrylic acid (PAA) as stabilizer. The sintering temperature of the Ag NPs can be lowered from conventionally used 200 °C to 80 °C in the presence of chloride. The silver ink with metal loading of 47 wt.% was successfully printed on poly ethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate through screen printing technique. The resistivity of the silver film is 1.52 × 10−7 Ω•m after sintering at 120 °C for 1 h. Finally, highly conductive patterns on PET substrate for flexible electronics application were fabricated.