Additive-Free Aqueous MXene Inks for Thermal Inkjet Printing on Textiles |
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Authors: | Simge Uzun Marion Schelling Kanit Hantanasirisakul Tyler S. Mathis Ron Askeland Genevieve Dion Yury Gogotsi |
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Affiliation: | 1. A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA, 19104 USA;2. HP Inc., 16399 W Bernardo Dr., San Diego, CA, 92127 USA;3. Center for Functional Fabrics, Drexel University, 3101 Market St., Philadelphia, PA, 19104 USA |
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Abstract: | Direct printing of functional inks onto flexible substrates allows for scalable fabrication of wearable electronics. However, existing ink formulations for inkjet printing require toxic solvents and additives, which make device fabrication more complex, limit substrate compatibility, and hinder device performance. Even water-based carbon or metal nanoparticle inks require supplemental surfactants, binders, and cosolvents to produce jettable colloidal suspensions. Here, a general approach is demonstrated for formulating conductive inkjet printable, additive-free aqueous Ti3C2Tx MXene inks for direct printing on various substrates. The rheological properties of the MXene inks are tuned by controlling the Ti3C2Tx flake size and concentration. Ti3C2Tx-based electrical conduits and microsupercapacitors (MSCs) are printed on textile and paper substrates by optimizing the nozzle geometry for high-resolution inkjet printing. The chemical stability and electrical properties of the printed devices are also studied after storing the devices for six months under ambient conditions. Current collector-free, textile-based MSCs show areal capacitance values up to 294 mF cm−2 (2 mV s−1) in poly(vinyl alcohol)/sulfuric acid gel electrolyte, surpassing reported printed MXene-based MSCs and inkjet-printed MSCs using other 2D nanomaterials. This work is an important step toward increasing the functional capacity of conductive inks and simplifying the fabrication of wearable textile-based electronics. |
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Keywords: | inks microsupercapacitors MXenes textile energy storage thermal inkjet printing |
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