液态金属电子墨水与印刷基底之间的撞击作用机理研究

Study on Impacting Mechanism between Liquid Metal Electronic Ink and Printing Substrate

液态金属印刷电子学是正在兴起的学科前沿,其利用室温液态金属代替传统电子墨水在基底上直接写出电子电路,具有独特的快捷、低成本优势。本文首次研究了制约此类电子印刷质量的一个关键问题,即液态金属墨水与印刷基底材料之间的撞击作用机理。通过实验评估了氧化效应对液态金属液滴对几类典型基底界面(打印纸、硅胶板和橡胶板)的碰撞特性的影响,对比研究了基底材料、液滴碰撞速度、液滴尺寸等的影响规律,并通过理论模型解释了液态金属与不同基底之间的粘附性差异机理。研究结果对于今后筛选理想的印刷材料及提升液态金属电子打印质量有重要意义。

Liquid metal printed electronics is a newly emerging frontier. With unique advantages of rapid speed and low cost, this method allows for direct fabrication of circuits and electronic components on substrates via printing strategies through substitution of room temperature liquid metal for conventional electronic ink. This article explores for the first time the core issues dominating the printing quality, i.e. the impacting mechanism between the liquid metal ink and the substrate material. Experiments are carried out to evaluate the influences of oxidation effect on the droplet＇s impact characteristics on several typical substrates such as printing paper, silicon dioxide and rubber plate. The effects of the substrate material, the impacting speed of the droplet and the droplet size etc. on the interactions between droplet and substrate are comparatively revealed. The- oretical model is established to interpret the mechanisms regarding the varied wettability between the liquid metal and different substrates. The results are expected to be important for identifying ideal printing substrate and improving the quality of printed electronics in the coming time.