Abstract
Currently, silver nanoparticles have attracted large interest in the photonics, electrics, analytical, and antimicrobial/biocidal fields due to their excellent optical, electrical, biological, and antibacterial properties. The versatility in generating different sizes, shapes, and surface morphologies results in a wide range of applications of silver nanoparticles in various industrial and health-related areas. In industrial applications, silver nanoparticles are used to produce conductive inks, which allows the construction of electronic devices on low-cost and flexible substrates by using various printing techniques. In order to achieve successful printed patterns, the necessary formulation and synthesis need to be engineered to fulfil the printing technique requirements. Additional sintering processes are typically further required to remove the added polymers, which are used to produce the desired adherence, viscosity, and reliable performance. This contribution presents a review of the synthesis of silver nanoparticles via different methods (chemical, physical and biological methods) and the application of silver nanoparticles under the electrical field. Formulation of silver inks and formation of conductive patterns by using different printing techniques (inkjet printing, screen printing and aerosol jet printing) are presented. Post-printing treatments are also discussed. A summary concerning outlooks and perspectives is presented at the end of this review.
Highlights
Nanoparticles, defined as having one of the dimensions in the 1–100 nm range [1], show unique and considerably different physical, chemical, and biological properties, compared to bulk materials, due to their large portion of surface atoms and the reduced area to volume ratio
We try to bring out the possible ways that were successful in synthesizing Ag NPs for their use as fillers in the development of conductive inks
The typical inks used for printing methods contain functional particles (e.g., Ag NPs), binders, solvents, and additives
Summary
Nanoparticles, defined as having one of the dimensions in the 1–100 nm range [1], show unique and considerably different physical, chemical, and biological properties, compared to bulk materials, due to their large portion of surface atoms and the reduced area to volume ratio. The typical inks used for printing methods contain functional particles (e.g., Ag NPs), binders, solvents, and additives. Silver is a complex ion dissolved in an aqueous system, and low-temperature evaporation of complex ligands is sufficient for precipitating silver and reducing it to bulk silver for creating conductive patterns [23,24] Physicochemical properties, such as viscosity, surface tension, evaporation rate and adhesion to substrates, are very critically important to achieve high printing accuracy and resolution. The viscosity and surface tension of conductive inks should be located in suitable ranges to meet the requirements of different printing technologies, which are presented later. Polymers are relevant in ink formulations to promote good to dispersion highly conductiveagglomeration, patterns, the especially dielectricinpolymer phase should be removed by sintering metal-based nanoparticle inks.
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