Preparation of Nano Silver Paste and Applications in Transparent Electrodes via Electric-Field Driven Micro-Scale 3D Printing

Nano-silver paste, as an important basic material for manufacturing thick film components, ultra-fine circuits, and transparent conductive films, has been widely used in various fields of electronics. Here, aiming at the shortcomings of the existing nano-silver paste in printing technology and the problem that the existing printing technology cannot achieve the printing of high viscosity, high solid content nano-silver paste, a nano-silver paste suitable for electric-field-driven (EFD) micro-scale 3D printing is developed. The result shows that there is no oxidation and settlement agglomeration of nano-silver paste with a storage time of over six months, which indicates that it has good dispersibility. We focus on the printing process parameters, sintering process, and electrical conductivity of nano-silver paste. The properties of the nano-silver paste were analyzed and the feasibility and practicability of the prepared nano-silver paste in EFD micro-scale 3D printing technology were verified. The experiment results indicate that the printed silver mesh which can act as transparent electrodes shows high conductivity (1.48 Ω/sq) and excellent transmittance (82.88%). The practical viability of the prepared nano-silver paste is successfully demonstrated with a deicing test. Additionally, the experimental results show that the prepared silver mesh has excellent heating properties, which can be used as transparent heaters.

Download Full-text

The Electric-Field-Driven Fusion Jetting 3D Printing for Fabricating High Resolution Polylactic Acid/Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Composite Micro-Scale Structures

Micromachines ◽

10.3390/mi11121132 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 1132

Author(s):

Xiaoqiang Li ◽

Guangming Zhang ◽

Wenhai Li ◽

Zun Yu ◽

Kun Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Nanotube ◽

High Resolution ◽

3D Printing ◽

Electric Field ◽

Polylactic Acid ◽

Line Width ◽

Micro Scale ◽

Biomimetic Scaffolds ◽

Multi Walled Carbon Nanotube ◽

Scale Structures

Existing 3D printing techniques are still facing the challenge of low resolution for fabricating polymer matrix composites, inhibiting the wide engineering applications for the biomedical engineering (biomimetic scaffolds), micro fuel cells, and micro-electronics. In order to achieve high resolution fabrication of polylactic acid (PLA)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) composites, this paper presents an electric-field-driven (EFD) fusion jetting 3D printing method by combining the mixing effect and material feeding of the micro-screw and the necking effect of Taylor cone by the EFD. The effects of main process parameters (the carbon loading, the voltage, the screw speed, and the printing speed) on the line width and the printing quality were studied and optimized. To demonstrate the printing capability of this proposed method, meshes with line width of 30 µm to 100 μm and 1 wt.% to 5 wt.% MWCNT for the application of conductive biomimetic scaffold and the anisotropic flexible meshes were prepared. The electrical properties were investigated to present the frequency dependence of the alternating current conductivity and the dielectric loss (tanδ), and the microstructures of printed structures demonstrated the uniformly dispersed MWCNT in PLA matrix. Therefore, it provides a new solution to fabricate micro-scale structures of composite materials, especially the 3D conductive biomimetic scaffolds.

Download Full-text

Metal-mesh Transparent EMI Shielding Glass Fabricated by Electric-field-driven Jet Deposition Micro-scale 3D Printing

Journal of Mechanical Engineering ◽

10.3901/jme.2019.15.056 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 55 (15) ◽

pp. 56

Author(s):

ZHOU Hefei ◽

LAN Hongbo ◽

LI Hongke ◽

XU Quan ◽

ZHAO Jiawei ◽

...

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Electric Field ◽

Emi Shielding ◽

Metal Mesh ◽

Micro Scale

Download Full-text

Investigation of layer height influencing the impact strength of polylactic acid (PLA)

Analecta Technica Szegedinensia ◽

10.14232/analecta.2021.2.76-83 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 76-83

Author(s):

József Richárd Lennert ◽

József Sárosi

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Property ◽

3D Printing ◽

Impact Strength ◽

Basic Material ◽

3D Printer ◽

Printing Technology ◽

Layer Height ◽

The Impact ◽

Influential Parameters ◽

Printing Time

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of layer height used during 3D printing on the impact strength, their standard deviations, and the printing time by using UNI EN ISO 180 unnotched specimens manufactured by FDM 3D printing technology. Every specimen is made of PLA, which is the most basic material of the FDM printing technology by using the same 3D printer. In this study it plays a key role to find out whether the layer height can be used to optimize the researched mechanical property within an economical framework or not. What is more, the possibly observable tendencies and crucial influential parameters will be analysed as well.

Download Full-text

Fabrication of the large-area flexible transparent heaters using electric-field-driven jet deposition micro-scale 3D printing

Advanced Optical Technologies ◽

10.1515/aot-2019-0021 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (3-4) ◽

pp. 217-223 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hefei Zhou ◽

Xiaoyang Zhu ◽

Hongke Li ◽

Hongbo Lan

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Electric Field ◽

Sheet Resistance ◽

Heating Temperature ◽

Low Cost ◽

Optical Transmittance ◽

Adhesive Force ◽

High Viscosity ◽

Large Area ◽

Micro Scale

Abstract In order to realize the mass production of the large-area flexible transparent film heater (FTFH) at low-cost, this paper presents a novel method which can achieve the direct fabrication of the large-area FTFH with Ag-grid by using an electric-field-driven jet deposition micro-scale 3D printing. The effects of the line width and the pitch of the printed Ag-grids on the optical transmittance and the sheet resistance are revealed. A typical FTFH with area of 80 mm × 60 mm, optical transmittance of 91.5% and sheet resistance of 4.7 Ω sq−1 is fabricated by the nano-silver paste with a high silver content (80 wt.%) and high viscosity (up to 20 000 mPa · s). Temperature-time response profiles and heating temperature distribution show that the heating performance of the FTFH has good thermal and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the adhesive force grade between the Ag-grid and the PET substrate measured to be 4B by 3M scotch tape. Therefore, the FTFH fabricated here is expected to be widely used in industry, such as window defroster of vehicles and display or touch screens owing to its striking characteristics of large area and low cost fabrication.

Download Full-text

Templateless, Plating‐Free Fabrication of Flexible Transparent Electrodes with Embedded Silver Mesh by Electric‐Field‐Driven Microscale 3D Printing and Hybrid Hot Embossing

Advanced Materials ◽

10.1002/adma.202007772 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 2007772

Author(s):

Xiaoyang Zhu ◽

Mingyang Liu ◽

Ximeng Qi ◽

Hongke Li ◽

Yuan‐Fang Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Electric Field ◽

Hot Embossing ◽

Transparent Electrodes ◽

Flexible Transparent Electrodes

Download Full-text

Transparent Electrodes: Templateless, Plating‐Free Fabrication of Flexible Transparent Electrodes with Embedded Silver Mesh by Electric‐Field‐Driven Microscale 3D Printing and Hybrid Hot Embossing (Adv. Mater. 21/2021)

Advanced Materials ◽

10.1002/adma.202170165 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (21) ◽

pp. 2170165

Author(s):

Xiaoyang Zhu ◽

Mingyang Liu ◽

Ximeng Qi ◽

Hongke Li ◽

Yuan‐Fang Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Electric Field ◽

Hot Embossing ◽

Transparent Electrodes ◽

Flexible Transparent Electrodes

Download Full-text

A Novel Microscale 3D Printing Based on Electric-Field-Driven Jet Deposition

Volume 1: Additive Manufacturing; Bio and Sustainable Manufacturing ◽

10.1115/msec2018-6451 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Lei Qian ◽

Hongbo Lan ◽

Guangming Zhang ◽

Jiawei Zhao ◽

Shuting Zou

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Electric Field ◽

Low Cost ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Counter Electrodes ◽

Micro Scale ◽

Multi Scale ◽

Printing Technique ◽

Jet Printing ◽

3D Printing Technique

This paper presents an electric-field-driven (EFD) jet deposition 3D printing technique, which is based on the induced electric field and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) cone-jetting behavior. Unlike the traditional EHD-jet printing with two counter electrodes, the EFD jet 3D printing only requires a nozzle electrode to induce an electric field between the nozzle and the target substrate. Taking into account both printing accuracy and printing efficiency, two novel working modes which involve pulsed cone-jet mode and continuous cone-jet mode, are proposed for implementing multi-scale 3D printing. In this work, significant relationships between the printing results and process parameters (voltage, air pressure, pulse duration time, and stage velocity) were investigated to guide the reliable printing in both working modes. Furthermore, the experimental studies were carried out to demonstrate the capabilities and advantages of the proposed approach, which included the suitability of various substrate, the capacity of conformal printing, and the diversity of the compatible materials. Finally, four typical printing results were provided to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed technology for micro-scale 2D patterning and macro/microstructures multi-scale fabrication. As a result, this research provides a novel micro-scale 3D printing technique with low cost, high resolution and good generalizability. The breakthrough technique paves a way for implementing highresolution 3D printing, especially for multi-scale and multimaterial additive manufacturing.

Download Full-text