Conductive ink is a special conductive coating that has been developed rapidly with the emergence of modern printed electronic technology. Compared with electronic products manufactured by traditional conductive coatings, printed electronic products based on conductive inks are flexible, large-area, lot sizing, lightweight, low cost, and environmentally friendly, and the market prospects are broad. Carbon nanotubes have high conductivity and large aspect ratio. As a conductive filler, it is very easy to build a conductive path and an ideal conductive ink filler.
Conductive ink is a composite material composed of conductive fillers, resin binders, solvents, dispersion stabilizers and additives. Among them, conductive fillers are the key functional phase. According to the properties of conductive fillers, it can be divided into three categories: silver, copper, and carbon (carbon nanotubes, graphene).
The latest application of nano conductive ink:
1.Flexible transparent conductive film
Using nano silver conductive ink as the conductive raw material, latest manufacturing technology-nano imprinting technology to produce the flexible transparent conductive film to replace the traditional conductive film. The flexible transparent conductive film produced by this process has the following characteristics: the surface resistance and light transmittance of the film are adjustable, which is better than the ITO transparent conductive film; the patterned electrode can be realized at one time, the flexible substrate is used, and the roll-to-roll large area and batch can be realized. It can be manufactured at a low cost and achieve extremely high surface conductivity.
2.RFID antennas
As early as many years ago, some people began to study using nano conductive ink to print RFID antennas. Its biggest advantages are simple process, environmental protection, and low drying temperature (applicable to a variety of substrates). Commonly used RFID antennas are divided into high frequency and ultra high frequency. The high frequency antenna manufacturing process is relatively cumbersome, and the circuit needs to be bridged between the front and back; the UHF antenna only needs to be printed on the substrate once, and the chip can be obtained after drying, RFID tags. Therefore, the nano conductive ink printing UHF RFID antenna has more efficiency advantages.
3.Transistors
The benchmark for measuring the chip manufacturing process is the width of the connecting wires of the transistors in the chip, that is, the line width. The line width of a semiconductor chip is limited by the atomic size and has its physical limit. The chip volume cannot be infinitely small, and the frequency of power-on and power-off cannot be increased any more. Breaking through this bottleneck requires a thorough innovation in materials and technology. CNTs transistors can be used to replace silicon transistors. The performance of transistors made of CNTs is 3 to 5 times higher than that of traditional silicon transistors, and the production cost is low.
At present, some R&D institutions have begun to use carbon nanotubes conductive ink to print transistors. Use printing technology to make CNTs transistors on flexible substrates reach a practical level, and are used for RFID tags.
4.Paper battery
Paper batteries refer to ultra-thin batteries printed with conductive inks (mainly as electrodes) using paper or film substrates as carriers. The terminal products of paper batteries include active or semi-active RFID tags, tag sensors, smart cards, smart packaging, medical electronic drug stickers, etc..
Nano silver(Ag) conductive ink can also be applied to paper battery electrodes. Domestic manufacturers have also done this test, using nano silver conductive ink through inkjet printing to obtain electrodes on the PET film. After charging and discharging tests, it is found that it has better battery capacity and stable performance.
Conductive ink is an indispensable material for printed electronic devices, and is the key and core technology in the upstream of the printed electronics industry chain. It is believed that in the near future, large-scale flexible displays, environmentally friendly ultra-thin batteries, RFID tags, etc. will bring great convenience to people’s lives.
Hwnanomaterial is supplying conductive fillers for conductive inks in bulk, including silver, copper, silver-coated copper powder, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and so on. Welcome to contact us if you have any requirements!