I was wondering if it is possible to print CNT dispersed in ethanol with a dimatix inkjet printer. What should the waveform or other parameters be like for this printing? Also, it it feasible to print alcohol based CNT ink? or is there some established protocol for printing alcohol based cnt ink? Thanks.
I never printed CNTs via inkjet, but there are some general things:
You are talking about the dimatix DMP 2800 series printers and the corresponding print heads having 16 nozzles 10 or 1 pL drop volume?
Then a viscosity of 2 - 30 mPas (best 10- 15) and a surface tension of 20 - 50 mN/m (best 25 - 35) is recommended.
So a pure ethanol is a little low in both, having 1.2 mPas and 22 mN/m at RT. I don't know how much the CNTs influence this.
And a second aspect: How long are the CNTs? Typically you should filter fluids through a 0.2 µm filter before printing. So make sure to not lose them in the filter. And in addition, if you don't filter and they are above about 1 µm (don’t judge me on the exact number, it depends), they will block the nozzle.
Forgotten: And the CNTs can agglomerate, even after filtering, and hence clogging of nozzles may occur.
CNT is too long for the piezo printing method such as Diamatix.
When I printed the graphene oxide with Diamatix. It blocked the nozzle in 2hrs.
It is really painful to clean the clogged nozzle.
I recommend using the other method to print the CNT such as normal HP thermal printing method.
Dieter Spiehl Thank you for the information. I am using some chemicals (bi-linkers) to make the CNTs well dispersed in water/ alcohol based solution by sonication, even though it gets clogged in the nozzles. I have not tried the 0.22 µm filtration, this might be a option to try on.
Dong Hae Ho Thank you. Can you kindly elaborate a little how you clean the clogged nozzles? can you use the cartridges again after cleaning the nozzles?
Here is a topic with good answers on how to clean print heads
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-is-the-best-procedure-to-unblock-the-nozzles-of-Diamatix-printhead
Dieter Spiehl
Thank you so much for the thread. It is really helpful. I have one question, how many times do you usually use the same cartridge before it is finally blocked? TIA.
It depends on testing and importance of the test run planed next. For first tests we use old heads stored (sometimes having a note "nozzle x and y blocked, rest is fine") and for more important printing trials we use new ones.
Okay, so do you store the old printheads dry or soaked/submerged in water or any solvent?
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