Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
8-31-2016
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering - (Ph.D.)
Department
Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Materials Science and Engineering
First Advisor
John Francis Federici
Second Advisor
Zafar Iqbal
Third Advisor
Reginald Farrow
Fourth Advisor
Robert Benedict Barat
Fifth Advisor
Ken Keunhyuk Ahn
Abstract
Printing technologies have been considered as alternative methods to fabricate thin films in recent years. More and more functional devices like resistors, sensors, antennas and even energy storage devices have been fabricated by printing technologies. As a typical digital printing technology, inkjet printing has much more advantages over the traditional mechanical printing technologies such as: low cost, computer controllable shape design and precise deposition. In this investigation, application of inkjet printing is used to fabricate conductive tracks and rechargeable lithium ion batteries.
Particle free silver ink is developed to solve this problem. In this research, silver complex solution is printed on polymer substrate and sintered in air. It is shown that the polymer additive could control the particle shape and size of silver produced during thermal sintering. Also, the silver particle size could be reduced furtherly with a certain amount of chemical reductant additive. Moreover, the chemical reductant additive can lower the sintering temperature effectively. High resolution silver conductive tracks are made by particle free silver ink by inkjet printing.
Constantan particle suspension ink is invented to make constantan sensors and resistors. A new chemical reducing sintering (CRS) is used to eliminate oxidation layers and sinter the constantan at low temperature. CRS is much safer and easier than other researches. This technology provides a general method to make metallic conductive tracks. Nickel and copper conductive tracks are also made by this method.
The nickel conductive film is made by CRS and used as the current collectors for the lithium ion batteries, which is cheaper than the traditional gold current collectors and more conductive than conventional carbon serious current collectors. Flexible rechargeable lithium ion batteries are made by inkjet printing layer by layer. Inkjet printing is a potential method to fabricate thin film designable batteries.
Recommended Citation
Gu, Yuan, "Application of inkjet printing technology to flexible batteries" (2016). Dissertations. 1554.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/dissertations/1554
