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Silver Solution Ink Makes Faster Flexible Circuits

Posted by samzenpus on from the quick-silver dept.

judgecorp writes "Silver-based compounds dissolved in ammonia could make finer and more flexible circuits, according to researchers at the University of Illinois. Existing inkjet based circuit printing systems use particles which are less predictable. The silver-based ink remains dissolved until the ammonia evaporates, and can be delivered through 100nm nozzles. In all senses, it's a better solution."

4 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Corrosion? by Kenja · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's a reason copper or gold is used in circuit boards despite silver being a far better conductor, how does this new solution avoid corrosion?

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Corrosion? by wierd_w · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Assuming this is metalic silver being deposited (this process seems eerily similar to traditional silver mirroring processes with ammonia, dextrose, and silver nitrate) then it can be rapidly plated with gold using a solution bath. (Gold dissolved in nitric and hydrochloric acid mixture)

      An interesting idea would be to print the two solutions (dextrose + ammonia) + (silver nitrate) with a dual head printer, then print dissolved gold after it has had time to deposit.

      This would chemically replace/plate (depending on thickness) the silver traces with gold ones. A simple distilled water wash afterwards would clean up the piece.

      Makes me wonder if I could repurpose a color print cartridge for this process. I strongly suspect that the nitrate and aqua regia solutions would be very very bad for the printheads though. (Dextrose + ammonia solution would probably just clog and nothing more.)

  2. Re:Every fucking month by tobt4josh · · Score: 5, Informative

    The fact that this new ink reaches the bulk conductivity of pure silver upon annealing is nothing short of amazing. My company has been working on some printed electronics application, and most of the conductive inks (including silver based) have conductivities that are too low to conduct any useful amount of current.

  3. Link to the research group doing this: by Hartree · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://colloids.matse.illinois.edu/

    Jennifer Lewis' research group here at the University of Illinois did this work.

    They've got a link on that page to a youtube video that shows how to make and use this conducting ink, but it goes through Boing Boing and is down at the moment due to the SOPA protest.

    Here's a direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfNByi-rrO4

    Seriously cool work.