Gas/liquid interfacial manipulation by electrostatic inducing for nano-resolution printed circuits

Abstract

A critical requirement for highly conductive metallic printing circuits is to obtain consecutive and high-resolution printed patterns. However, the aggregation or assembly of metallic nanocrystals in solution is usually random, which perplexes the consecutiveness and resolution of the printed circuits. In this study, we prepared consecutive nano-resolution circuits by gas/liquid interfacial manipulation. Consecutive gas/liquid interfaces were achieved by electrostatic inducing of a cationic metal ink using anionic surfactant onto the gas/liquid interface to form continuous patterns. Gas/liquid interfacial morphology was manipulated by gas/liquid/solid three phase contact line (TCL); Through controlling TCL sliding on different surfaces, submicron or nano-resolution circuits were fabricated, which showed excellent conductivity. This facile strategy showed significant potential for use in wearable electronics and high-resolution electronic circuits.