Novel Synthesis of a Solid Silver Oxalate Complex Used for Printing Conductive Traces.

A solid silver – ligand complex, m-oxolato-bis(ethylenediaminesilver(I)) was developed for formulating particle-free conductive inks. The complex has approximately 47% silver content by weight and is soluble in ink-jet compatible polar solvents. Aqueous ink formulations for the inkjet printing was developed to print uniform films on glass and polyimide substrates. When cured, printed films comprising crystalline metallic silver was determined by XRD. Optimized curing conditions were found to be 120°C for less than five minutes, which may be compatible with high throughput printing. Cured films demonstrated better adhesion on polyimide substrates than on glass. This study has improved the state of the art material used for MOD inks and provided a method for printing on a variety of flexible electronic form factors