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Copper nanoparticle conductive patterns fabricated by thermal sintering using carboxylic acid vapors and their application for radio-frequency identification antennas

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Abstract

Copper (Cu) nanoparticle (NP) ink was employed to fabricate conductive Cu NP patterns on flexible polyimide (PI) substrates using thermal sintering under various atmospheres, such as air, nitrogen (N2), and five carboxylic acid vapors. Carboxylic acids included three monocarboxylic acids (acetic acid, formic acid, and propionic acid), one dicarboxylic acid (oxalic acid), and one tricarboxylic acid (citric acid). The sintering temperature was chosen among 140, 200, and 260 ℃. The sintering time varied in the range of 15–60 min. It was demonstrated that formic acid vapors played a role in effective removal of organic compounds, leading to particles connect for necking and coalescence and a further dense microstructure. Although cuprous oxides were observed, the Cu NP patterns sintered under formic acid vapor atmosphere achieved low sheet resistance values in the range of 0.0006–0.4032 Ω/sq for all temperatures and times. Vickers hardness for the Cu patterns sintered in formic acid vapor atmosphere showed in the range of 17.24–29.85 N/mm2 for all temperatures. Cu NP patterns sintered under formic acid vapors at 260 ℃ for 15 min were chosen for the flexible radio-frequency identification (RFID) antenna fabrication with two different shapes of spiral and squared antennas. From the return loss graphs, the quality factors were obtained in the range of 6.80–20.53 and 13.66–32.91 for spiral and squared antennas, respectively.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation under Grant No. OIA-1946231 and the Louisiana Board of Regents for the Louisiana Materials Design Alliance (LAMDA). The authors would like to thank Dr. Rafael Cueto of the Polymer Analysis Laboratory for use of TGA instrument and the Nanofabrication facility for use of nanofabrication equipment at Louisiana State University. The authors would like to thank Mr. Richard Greco of the Louisiana Accelerator Center for use of SEM instrument.

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  1. Karl Young and Rajib Chowdhury have contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, 70503, USA

    Karl Young, Rajib Chowdhury & Seonhee Jang

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Young, K., Chowdhury, R. & Jang, S. Copper nanoparticle conductive patterns fabricated by thermal sintering using carboxylic acid vapors and their application for radio-frequency identification antennas. Appl. Phys. A 129, 207 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-023-06504-5

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