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Humic acid assisted chemical synthesis of silver nanoparticles for inkjet printing of flexible circuits

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Abstract

In this paper, humic acid (HA) was used as stabilizer to prepare silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) by chemically reducing silver salts in water phase, which were employed to produce Ag NPs inks for inkjet printing conductive silver patterns. The obtained silver nanoparticles stabilized with HA (HA-Ag NPs) were all in spherical shape and the particle size was about 7–12 nm. By re-dispersing HA-Ag NPs in ultrapure water, conductive ink with excellent storage stability was prepared, which can be placed at room temperature for 30 days without any precipitation. The as-prepared HA-Ag NPs conductive ink was printed onto photopapers to fabricate conductive silver patterns with a domestic inkjet printer. The resistivity of the printed pattern could reach 135 μΩ cm after printed for 40 layers and sintered at 180 °C for 60 min. In addition, the printed conductive silver patterns could be integrated into a LED device or alarm apparatus, indicating it could be widely used in flexible printing electronics.

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Acknowledgement

We acknowledge financial support from the National First-Class Discipline Program of Light Industry Technology and Engineering (LITE2018-19), MOE & SAFEA for the 111 Project (B13025) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Yueyue Hao, Zesheng Xu, Jian Gao, Kaiyun Wu, Jingyu Liu & Jing Luo

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  1. Yueyue Hao
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  2. Zesheng Xu
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  3. Jian Gao
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  4. Kaiyun Wu
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Correspondence to Jing Luo.

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Hao, Y., Xu, Z., Gao, J. et al. Humic acid assisted chemical synthesis of silver nanoparticles for inkjet printing of flexible circuits. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 30, 20400–20409 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-02372-z

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