Preparation of a low temperature sintering silver nanoparticle ink and fabrication of conductive patterns on PET substrate

A low temperature sinterable conductive ink was prepared using silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) as filler material. The polydisperse Ag NPs with diameters of 5-85 nm were synthesized using polyacrylic acid (PAA) as stabilizer. The sintering temperature of the Ag NPs can be lowered from conventionally used 200 °C to 80 °C in the presence of chloride. The silver ink with metal loading of 47 wt.% was successfully printed on poly ethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate through screen printing technique. The resistivity of the silver film is 1.52 × 10
^-7
Ω·m after sintering at 120 °C for 1 h. Finally, highly conductive patterns on PET substrate for flexible electronics application were fabricated.