Single droplet formation by controlling the viscoelasticity of polymer solutions during inkjet printing

Inkjet printing has emerged as a potential solution processing method for large-area patterned films.During inkjet printing,a single droplet without satellite droplet is required for high-quality film.Herein,we propose a strategy for obtaining a single droplet by adjusting the reduced concentration(c/c^(*),where c^(*)is the critical overlap concentration)in the range of 1.0-1.5.Droplet formation can be categorized into three distinct regimes:(1)c/c^(*)<1.0,satellite droplet;(2)c/c^(*)=1.0-1.5,single droplet;(3)c/c^(*)>2.0,no droplet.Furthermore,an inertial-capillary balance led to the 2/3-power scaling of the minimum radius with time for the solutions of c/c^(*)<1.0.However,for the solutions of c/c^(*)=1.0-1.5,the ligament radius decreased exponentially with time.Moreover,the Weissenberg number was higher than the critical value of 0.5,indicating that the polymer chains underwent coil-stretch transition.The viscoelastic-capillary balance dominated instead of the inertial-capillary balance.The resulting viscoelastic resistance reduced the length of the ligament and increased the velocity difference between the satellite and main droplets.Consequently,a single droplet was formed.In addition,the law can be successfully generalized to various molecular weights,molecular structures and solvents.

The effects of coil-stretch transition behavior of polyfluorene inks on single droplet formation during inkjet printing

For drop-on-demand(DOD)inkjet printing,stable and single ink droplet fo rmation without satellite dots is the key to improve the print quality.The formation of stable and single droplet is influenced by filament break up and the polymer chain’s coil-stretch transition behavior.In this paper,the droplet formation behaviors of polyfluorene(PFO)ink at various driving voltages(V),polymer chain’s coil-stretch transition mechanism and its effects on single ink droplet formation are investigated.It indicates that when 5863 V,Wi>0.5,the PFO molecular chain is stretched because of the high hydrodynamic forces,resulting unwanted satellite droplets.When 55<V<58V,the droplet shrinks into the nozzle,which indicates that the kinetic energy supplied by the deformation of the piezoelectric transducer isn't enough to force thedroplet to be jetted from the nozzle.