Know4Nano

Solution-processed electronic inks with two-dimensional (2D) materials have the potential to enable the next generation of low-cost printed digital electronics due to their diverse nature of metallic, insulating, and semiconducting properties. [1] First, we will present our in-line, high-shear exfoliation process that enables large-scale production of few-layer graphene with a yield of ~100% and throughput of ~8.3 g/h, minimizing defects compared to traditional methods.[2] The resulting graphene inks are highly conductive (σ ∼ 10⁴ S/m) and form conductive interconnects for inkjet-printed electronics, as well as high-performance anode composites for lithium-ion batteries with capacities near graphite’s theoretical limit (370 mAh/g). Additionally, we demonstrate using these inks in flexible, biocompatible electronic textiles with applications in capacitive, strain and gas sensors. [2]

In parallel, we explore our progress over the last decade from the first printed graphene integrated circuits [3] to the more recent push towards semiconducting 2D materials (Fig. 1) with a range of 2D families. [4] Exfoliation metrics will be presented to so that the highest aspect ratio flakes >1000 can be made with a range of n, p and ambipolar electronic behaviours. [4] We will explain the difference in transport mechanisms between liquid phase and electrochemical exfoliation [5] and our methodologies to enable the most efficient devices with network mobility (10 – 30 cm²/V·s) as solution-processed flexible transistors [6] and with new device architectures [7]. We will then present our recent work in solution-processed circuits for CMOS [4], digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and binary amplitude shift keying (BASK) to enable encoding and decoding of high-frequency digital messages. [4,8] These developments pave the way for low-cost, conformal digital integrated circuits for future wearable and flexible electronics.