Characterization of in situ sintering of silver nanoparticles on commercial photo papers in inkjet printing

In the current research, we performed quantitative characterization of commercially available photo papers with respect to chemical composition and physical properties in order to find the preferred photo paper with the best electrical conductivity through in situ silver nanoparticle sintering. The composition ratio of chloride ions, surface roughness and pore size of the photo papers were quantitatively analyzed. The relationship of the above-mentioned parameters with the conductivity of the silver nanoparticle pattern formed on the printed surface was explored. The experimental results showed that chloride ions on the surface of photo papers activated the decomposition of a capping agent and sintering between the silver nanoparticles. It was also found that the chloride ions above a certain value did not affect the sintering. The surface roughness and pore size of the photo papers were found to be inversely related to the conductivity of electrode pattern. Moreover, it was found that additional heat treatment (for a relatively short time at a low temperature) contributed to the improvement of conductivity. However, this effect varied depending upon the characteristics of the photo papers. This newly developed inexpensive method using a highly accessible substrate will be very helpful for future paper electronics related devices and research.