Inkjet Printing of Conductive Silver Patterns by Using the First Aqueous Particle-Free MOD Ink without Additional Stabilizing Ligands

Abstract

The chemical and physical properties of [AgO2C(CH2OCH2)3H] (3) and its use as an aqueous, ligand-free MOD ink (MOD = metal−organic decomposition) for piezo inkjet printing is discussed. The printed, thermal, or photochemical sintered silver features are electrically conductive on glass (2.7 × 107 S m−1) and PET (PET = polyethylene terephthalate) substrates (1.1 × 107 S m−1) corresponding to 43% and 18% of the bulk silver conductivity. Conducted tape tests show the suitability of the ink for particularly polymer substrates. TG-MS studies demonstrate a two-step decomposition for the conversion of 3 to elemental silver. The structure of 3 in the solid state was determined by single X-ray structure determination.