High-Speed Direct Ink Writing of Conducting Polymers Enabled by Electric Field Assistance

The recently developed electrically-assisted direct ink writing (eDIW) process has emerged as a promising manufacturing technique for printing high-resolution conductive patterns at the speeds up to 10 m/s. This was achieved by stabilizing the ink jets using an electric field. In the present study, a conducting polymer ink was modified by adding a non-conducting polyethylene oxide (PEO). This modification not only facilitated printability of the conducting polymer ink Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) on a flexible plastic substrate, but also enhaced its electrical conductivity. Then, eDIW was employed to reach extremely high printing speeds (up to 30 m/s) at an enhanced resolution (min. 10 µm). The effect of the electric field on the printing process was explored experimentally.