Title: Rheological and sedimentation behaviour of nanosilver colloids for inkjet printing

Authors: E. Tamjid, Bernd H. Guenther

Addresses: Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (INST), Sharif University of Technology, P.O. Box 11365-9466, 14588 Tehran, Iran. ' Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials Research (IFAM), Wiener Strasse 12, 28359 Bremen, Germany

Abstract: Inkjet printing of colloidal metals is an attractive method for direct patterning of electrically conductive structures and interconnects in electronic devices, owing to low-cost, low-waste and simplicity of the process. In the present work, mixtures of well-dispersed silver nanoparticles and ethylene glycol were prepared for the inkjet printing process. Three different surfactants including PVP, MSA and AOT were added to study the stability of the nanosilver colloids. The effect of high-intensity ultrasonic treatment and temperature on the rheological properties was investigated utilising a rheometer in plate-plate geometry. It is shown that the viscosity of the ink increases with increasing the volume fraction of the silver nanoparticles and decreases with increasing temperature in an Arrhenius relationship. The shear stress-strain curves show a pseudo-plastic behaviour, indicating the breakage of the nanoparticles agglomerates due to the applied shear stress. The sedimentation analysis indicates the better stabilisation effect of PVP, which is suitable for the printing process.

Keywords: nanosilver colloids; silver nanoparticles; rheology; sedimentation; inkjet printing; nanotechnology; ethylene glycol; shear stress.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2010.033881

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2010 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.383 - 392

Published online: 02 Jul 2010 *

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