Electrical and mechanical performance of Inkjet-printed flexible electrodes based on reduced graphene oxide/silver nanoparticles

This study presents a simple and rapid process for the fabrication of inkjet-printed flexible electrodes using a water-based conductive ink containing reduced graphene oxide-silver nanoparticles (RGO-AgNPs). The developed ink demonstrated favourable fluid properties for inkjet printing in which conductive patterns were successfully printed on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film without requiring post-treatment sintering. The presence of chloride coating layer on PET enabled the RGO-AgNPs electrode to be sintered spontaneously during printing at a relatively low temperature of 40 degrees C. It achieved the highest electrical conductivity of 2.57 x 107 S/m with five printed layers. The chemical sintering also ensured good adhesion of the printed ink to the substrate surface, as confirmed by a Scotch tape test. Outer bending test performed on this electrode indicated that the electrical resistance increased by less than 20% after 5000 bending cycles. These findings suggest a significant breakthrough in realizing a practical and efficient method for fabricating high-performance electrodes for flexible electronic applications.