Recent advances in conductive materials for printed electronics and printed technology

The growing interest in flexible conductive materials and printed electronic components has spawned a series of new commercial applications, including smart devices, functional clothing, and intelligent packaging. This review summarizes the main preparation techniques for conductive ink fillers, while considering the influence of the source materials (metals, carbon nanoparticles and polymers) that affect the performance of the conductive inks. The preparation methods and related research advances in electronic components (flexible electrodes and sensors) based on inkjet printing and screen-printing technology are summarized. In addition, the literature review reveals that the current research content rarely considers the influence of printing conditions on the quality of the printed electronic devices, thus indicating that numerous specific engineering challenges need to be overcome for the commercial application of printed electronics.