(b) The prepared antenna pattern after being sintered at 125°C for 30 min and 3D image of the conductive track. Figure 4a is the thin-film PDMS pattern template with the thickness of 200 μm, width of 200 μm on PET substrate, and total length of 15.8 cm. The prepared silver nanowire ink was dropped on the center

of the template using a syringe (20 μL per drop). Due to the good wetting and film-forming ability of the ink and the hydrophobicity of PDMS template (confine the ink coverage), it will flow along the template track until it fills the whole track, especially after plasma treatment with oxygen. After being sintered at 125°C for 30 min, the continuous conductive track can be fabricated, and the total resistor

R AB was down to 4.8 Ω measured using a multimeter (Figure 4b), with the width of 200 μm and thickness of 22 μm according to the 3D image, which just was consistent with the check details solid content of the SNW ink. Therefore, it also can be inferred that the thickness of continuous conductive track can be controlled by the solid content or the layers of conductive track. From Figure 5 and Alisertib purchase inset, a conductive track with different line widths also can be easily obtained by this method. It can be derived that the line width did not have a great effect on the resistivity, and when the line width decreases from 1,000 to 12 μm, the resistivity increased from 12.9 to 33.6 μΩ cm, less than three times, mainly because silver nanowires were as long as tens of microns, as shown in Figure 2b; the alignment of silver wires might be in parallel in a 10-μm trench with less wire crossovers. Therefore, electron transfer might be more difficult. So, it can be inferred that the accuracy of the conductive pattern is mainly up to that of

the laser instrument. Figure 5 Relationship between resistivity and line width Cobimetinib manufacturer fabricated by drop or fit-to-flow method. Conclusions In summary, the strategy of ink drop or fit-to-flow method was applied to prepare an antenna pattern using silver nanowire ink synthesized here successfully. The results show that the SNW ink with the selleck kinase inhibitor surface tension of 36.9 mN/m and viscosity of 13.8 mPa s at 20°C can flow along the trench of the conductive pattern spontaneously, especially after plasma treatment with oxygen, and showed low resistivity of 12.9 μΩ cm after being sintered at 125°C for 30 min. The relationship between resistivity and line width was also investigated systematically, indicating that this method not only can be used to prepare large-area electronics but also can be fit to the preparation of microelectronics. Acknowledgements This work was supported by a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). References 1. Chu L, Hecht DS, Gruner G: Carbon nanotube thin films: fabrication, properties, and applications. Chem Rev 2010, 110:5790–5844.CrossRef 2.