Extremely flexible, printable Ag conductive features on PET and paper substrates via continuous millisecond photonic sintering in a large area

Abstract

The development of highly conductive, flexible metallic constituents in patterned geometries has been of paramount interest in various optoelectronic applications. Among a variety of materials, silver nanoparticles have been considered as candidates that meet the physical/chemical requirements for practical applications; but, the issues for applicability to roll-to-roll processes on inexpensive substrates have not been yet resolved. In this study, we demonstrate that the highly flexible, rollable, printable Ag structures, with an electrical resistivity of 8.0 μΩ cm, are easily formed on a timescale of 10⁻³ s on polyethylene terephthalate and paper substrates, by supplying highly intensive photon energies on olate-Ag nanoparticle assemblies. The precise control of the amount of carbon residues, by virtue of sophisticatedly adjustable input of photon energies, allows the formation of well-adhesive metallic films on plastic substrates, without incorporating any additional procedures, enabling extreme flexibility during 10 000 cycles with a bending radius of 1.5 mm. The continuous approach with a moving stage also suggests the potential toward a practical sintering process for instantly generating highly flexible, conductive metallic architectures in a large area.