A water-based screen printable silver metal–organic decomposition ink for low-temperature curing of high precision conductive patterns

Abstract

The silver metal–organic decomposition (MOD) ink has become an emerging conductive printing material due to its advantages of simple synthesis process, high stability, low-temperature decomposition, and high conductivity. However, the Ag MOD ink suitable for screen printing still has the problem of high curing temperature. This work selected an easily decomposable silver oxalate-1,2-propanediamine complex as the conductive filler to design a water-based screen printable MOD ink with a low decomposition temperature. The rheological properties of the ink were adjusted by adding different cellulose compositions, and the relationships among the cellulose composition, and the ink's rheological and printing properties were clarified. It was found that the MOD ink with mixed type cellulose has both excellent printing and electrical properties. The screen-printed Ag traces cured at 130 °C have a conductivity of 2.17 × 10⁶ S m⁻¹ and a fine line-width of 200 μm. The developed ink is tailored for screen printing and is capable of producing fine-feature conductive patterns essential for advanced flexible electronics.