Review of Conductive Inks in Printed Electronics

With the emergence, development and application of new flexible electronic devices, the preparation process of printed electrons has been paid more and more attention by comparing the advantages of low cost, high efficiency and large area production compared with other traditional technologies. As the important part of printed electronics technology, many efforts have been done to the conductive inks by researchers. Therefore, this paper is organized to review the different designs of conductive inks, such as nanoparticles inks, metal organic decomposition inks and metal nanowires inks. Furthermore, the ink properties, preparation methods and applications have been discussed, together with the methodologies for improving adhesion between the conductive inks and substrates. At last, we point out the next-step development of conductive inks in brief. Accordingly, we can conclude that the nature and characteristics of conductive ink determine the entire process and the final product performance. The conductive ink will continue develop in low cost, environmentally friendly technology and high conductivity.