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Morphology and electrical properties of high-speed flexography-printed graphene

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Abstract

Printed graphene electrodes have been demonstrated as a versatile platform for electrochemical sensing, with numerous examples of rapid sensor prototyping using laboratory-scale printing techniques such as inkjet and aerosol jet printing. To leverage these materials in a scalable production framework, higher-throughput printing methods are required with complementary advances in ink formulation. Flexography printing couples the attractive benefits of liquid-phase graphene printing with large-scale manufacturing. Here, we investigate graphene flexography for the fabrication of electrodes by analyzing the impacts of ink and process parameters on print quality and electrical properties. Characterization of the printed patterns reveals anisotropic structure due to striations along the print direction, which is related to viscous fingering of the ink. However, high-resolution imaging reveals a dense graphene network even in regions of sparse coverage, contributing to robust electrical properties even for the thinnest films (< 100 nm). Moreover, the mechanical and environmental sensitivity of the printed electrodes is characterized, with particular focus on atmospheric response and thermal hysteresis. Overall, this work reveals the conditions under which graphene inks can be employed for high-speed flexographic printing, which will facilitate the development of graphene-based sensors and related devices.

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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 Harry S. Truman Fellowship through the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories. This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the United States Government. The authors would like to acknowledge support from Iowa State University, the National Science Foundation Scalable Nanomanufacturing Program (NSF CMMI-1727846 and NSF CMMI-2039268), and the National Science Foundation Future Manufacturing Program (NSF CMMI-2037026). Rheometry and thermogravimetric analysis were performed in the Materials Characterization and Imaging (MatCI) Facility at Northwestern University, which receives support from the National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Program (NSF DMR-1720139).

Funding

Sandia National Laboratories, Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program; DOE Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies; National Science Foundation Scalable Nanomanufacturing Program; National Science Foundation Future Manufacturing Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Materials Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 87185, USA

    Rebecca R. Tafoya, Michael A. Gallegos, Bryan Kaehr & Eric N. Coker

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Julia R. Downing & Mark C. Hersam

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Livio Gamba & Ethan B. Secor

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  1. Rebecca R. Tafoya
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Contributions

Ethan B. Secor contributed to conceptualization; Ethan B. Secor, Julia R. Downing, Rebecca R. Tafoya, Michael Gallegos, Eric N. Coker, and Livio Gamba provided methodology; Julia R. Downing, Rebecca R. Tafoya, Livio Gamba, and Ethan B. Secor performed formal analysis and investigation; Rebecca R. Tafoya and Ethan B. Secor performed writing—original draft preparation; Mark C. Hersam, Michael Gallegos, Bryan Kaehr, Julia R. Downing, and Eric N. Coker performed writing—review and editing; Mark C. Hersam, Ethan B. Secor, and Bryan Kaehr contributed to funding acquisition; Mark C. Hersam and Bryan Kaehr provided resources; Mark C. Hersam and Ethan B. Secor done supervision.

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Correspondence to Ethan B. Secor.

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Tafoya, R.R., Gallegos, M.A., Downing, J.R. et al. Morphology and electrical properties of high-speed flexography-printed graphene. Microchim Acta 189, 123 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-022-05232-6

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