Screen-Printing\nof a Highly Conductive Graphene Ink\nfor Flexible Printed Electronics

Abstract

Conductive\ninks for the future printed electronics should have\nthe following merits: high conductivity, flexibility, low cost, and\ncompatibility with wide range of substrates. However, the state-of-the-art\nconductive inks based on metal nanoparticles are high in cost and\npoor in flexibility. Herein, we reported a highly conductive, low\ncost, and super flexible ink based on graphene nanoplatelets. The\ngraphene ink has been screen-printed on plastic and paper substrates.\nCombined with postprinting treatments including thermal annealing\nand compression rolling, the printed graphene pattern shows a high\nconductivity of 8.81 × 10⁴ S m^–1 and good flexibility without significant conductivity loss after\n1000 bending cycles. We further demonstrate that the printed highly\nconductive graphene patterns can act as current collectors for supercapacitors.\nThe supercapacitor with the printed graphene pattern as the current\ncollector and printed activated carbon as the active material shows\na good rate capability of up to 200 mV s^–1. This\nwork potentially provides a promising route toward the large-scale\nfabrication of low cost yet flexible printed electronic devices.