Printing Electronics with an Inkjet Printer

Apr-11-15 By using an inkjet printer to print out stretchy electronics, researchers have brought us a step closer to mass production of flexible electronic wearables and soft robots.

Typically, liquid metal cannot be printed by an inkjet printer because the metal is too thick to flow through the inkjet's nozzles. To overcome this obstacle, the printable conductive ink developed by a team from Purdue University has been broken down into nanoparticles suspended in a carrier that can fit through the nozzles. The ink was created by dispersing a liquid metal alloy into a non-metallic solvent, such as ethanol, and then exposing the mix to ultrasound. This process creates nanoparticles that can be printed onto a material to form circuits, while the ethanol evaporates harmlessly away.

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[ENGADGET.COM]
[PURDUE.EDU]

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