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High-Resolution Inkjet Printing of Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Microdiode Arrays
2020, Yang, P., Zhang, L., Kang, D.J., Strahl, R., Kraus, T.
The direct printing of microscale quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) is a cost-effective alternative to the placement of pre-formed LEDs. The quality of printed QLEDs currently is limited by nonuniformities in droplet formation, wetting, and drying during inkjet printing. Here, optimal ink formulation which can suppress nonuniformities at the pixel and array levels is demonstrated. A solvent mixture is used to tune the ejected droplet size, ensure wetting, and provoke Marangoni flows that prevent coffee stain rings. Arrays of green QLED devices are printed at a resolution of 500 pixels in.−1 with a maximum luminance of ≈3000 cd m−2 and a peak current efficiency of 2.8 cd A−1. The resulting array quality is sufficient to print displays at state-of-the-art resolutions.
Influence of water on tribolayer growth when lubricating steel with a fluorinated phosphonium dicyanamide ionic liquid
2019, Urtis, L.A., Arcifa, A., Zhang, P., Du, J., Fantauzzi, M., Rauber, D., Hempelmann, R., Kraus, T., Rossi, A., Spencer, N.D.
This work aims to elucidate the role of environmental humidity on the tribological behavior of steel surfaces lubricated with an ionic liquid comprised of a fluorinated phosphonium cation-tributyl-3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8-tridecafluoro-octyl-phosphonium-and a dicyanamide anion (i.e. N(CN) 2 - ). Ball-on-disk tribotests were carried out at room temperature and at various levels of relative humidity (RH). Water was found to be required to promote the formation of a tribofilm over the contact area. The reaction layer exhibited a patchy morphology, which resembles that observed formed with conventional antiwear additives such as ZnDTP. A surface-chemical analysis of the tribofilm indicated that the tribofilm is composed of fluorides, oxides, and phosphates, pointing to a stress-induced degradation of the ions and corrosion of the sliding counterparts, which is enabled by the presence of water at the sliding interface. © 2019 by the authors.
Gold nanorods with conjugated polymer ligands: sintering-free conductive inks for printed electronics
2016, Reiser, B., González-García, L., Kanelidis, I., Maurer, J.H.M., Kraus, T.
Metal-based nanoparticle inks for printed electronics usually require sintering to improve the poor electron transport at particle-particle interfaces. The ligands required for colloidal stability act as insulating barriers and must be removed in a post-deposition sintering step. This complicates the fabrication process and makes it incompatible with many flexible substrates. Here, we bind a conjugated, electrically conductive polymer on gold nanorods (AuNRs) as a ligand. The polymer, poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethyloxy-4-butylsulfonate] (PTEBS), provides colloidal stability and good electron transport properties to stable, sintering-free inks. We confirm that the polymer binds strongly through a multidentate binding motif and provides superior colloidal stability in polar solvents over months by IR and Raman spectrometry and zeta potential measurements. We demonstrate that the developed ligand exchange protocol is directly applicable to other polythiophenes such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). Films of AuNRs coated with above polymers reached conductivities directly after deposition comparable to conventional metal inks after ligand removal and retained their conductivity for at least one year when stored under ambient conditions.
Reversible Conductive Inkjet Printing of Healable and Recyclable Electrodes on Cardboard and Paper
2020, Kang, D.J., Jüttke, Y., González-García, L., Escudero, A., Haft, M., Kraus, T.
Conductive inkjet printing with metal nanoparticles is irreversible because the particles are sintered into a continuous metal film. The resulting structures are difficult to remove or repair and prone to cracking. Here, a hybrid ink is used to obviate the sintering step and print interconnected particle networks that become highly conductive immediately after drying. It is shown that reversible conductive printing is possible on low-cost cardboard samples after applying standard paper industry coats that are adapted in terms of surface energy and porosity. The conductivity of the printed films approaches that of sintered standard inks on the same substrate, but the mobility of the hybrid particle film makes them less sensitive to cracks during bending and folding of the substrate. Damages that occur can be partially repaired by wetting the film such that particle mobility is increased and particles move to bridge insulating gaps in the film. It is demonstrated that the conductive material can be recovered from the cardboard at the end of its life time and be redispersed to recycle the particles and reuse them in conductive inks.
Kinetic Control over Self-Assembly of Semiconductor Nanoplatelets
2020, Momper, R., Zhang, H., Chen, S., Halim, H., Johannes, E., Yordanov, S., Braga, D., Blülle, B., Doblas, D., Kraus, T., Kraus, T., Bonn, M., Wang, H.I., Riedinger, A.
Semiconductor nanoplatelets exhibit spectrally pure, directional fluorescence. To make polarized light emission accessible and the charge transport effective, nanoplatelets have to be collectively oriented in the solid state. We discovered that the collective nanoplatelets orientation in monolayers can be controlled kinetically by exploiting the solvent evaporation rate in self-assembly at liquid interfaces. Our method avoids insulating additives such as surfactants, making it ideally suited for optoelectronics. The monolayer films with controlled nanoplatelets orientation (edge-up or face-down) exhibit long-range ordering of transition dipole moments and macroscopically polarized light emission. Furthermore, we unveil that the substantial in-plane electronic coupling between nanoplatelets enables charge transport through a single nanoplatelets monolayer, with an efficiency that strongly depends on the orientation of the nanoplatelets. The ability to kinetically control the assembly of nanoplatelets into ordered monolayers with tunable optical and electronic properties paves the way for new applications in optoelectronic devices.
Electron microscopy of nanoparticle superlattice formation at a solid-liquid interface in nonpolar liquids
2020, Cepeda-Perez, E., Doblas, D., Kraus, T., de Jonge, N.
Nanoparticle superlattice films form at the solid-liquid interface and are important for mesoscale materials, but are notoriously difficult to analyze before they are fully dried. Here, the early stages of nanoparticle assembly were studied at solid-liquid interfaces using liquid-phase electron microscopy. Oleylamine-stabilized gold nanoparticles spontaneously formed thin layers on a silicon nitride (SiN) membrane window of the liquid enclosure. Dense packings of hexagonal symmetry were obtained for the first monolayer independent of the nonpolar solvent type. The second layer, however, exhibited geometries ranging from dense packing in a hexagonal honeycomb structure to quasi-crystalline particle arrangements depending on the dielectric constant of the liquid. The complex structures formed by the weaker interactions in the second particle layer were preserved, while the surface remained immersed in liquid. Fine-tuning the properties of the involved materials can thus be used to control the three-dimensional geometry of a superlattice including quasi-crystals.