I have been trying to inkjet print PEDOT:PSS/DMSO on standard glass slides for sometime now. However, I find that the droplets spread horribly and the lines become badly disfigured.
I tried oxygen plasma treatment which helped very little so i'm now wondering what to do.
Is it not possible to have sharp PEDOT:PSS/DMSO lines on glass slides at all? Or do I need to perform any chemical pre-treatment?
Thank you for your help!
Dear Anindya,
to my knowledge, printing sharp PEDOT:PSS lins with inkjet should be possible (some of my colleagues did in my former lab). It is always a question of surface tension (pedot:pss-liquid), surface energy of the substrate and viscosity of your ink (and your solid content in the solution). If your droplets spread too much, the substrate may have been activated too much. Did you try Argon or Nitrogen plasma instead of oxygen plasma? What about the possibility of adding a surfactant to your PEDOT:PSS solution or increasing the viscosity of the solution?
Kind regards,
Sebastian
Sebastian Marius Raupp
Dear Sebastian,
Thank you for the input. I have done air plasma treatment too (which is closer to nitrogen plasma I guess) but have had similar results. I can add surfactants to the PEDOT:PSS solution but I'm not sure which ones to use as it is very tricky to print PEDOT:PSS consistently due to its tendency to agglomerate and clog the nozzle.
Do you have any suggestions?
Best regards,
Anindya.
Dear Anindya,
I applied varios sufactants like TritonX-100, but I deposited PEDOT:PSS via slot die coating. I recommend to use low boiling point solvents to lower drying times and therefore reduce the time, the system can spread. Second increased viscosity will help (to my mind). Do you filter your PEDOT:PSS solution prior printing? Without filtering I got agglomerates as well.
If you check for possible compositions of your PEDOT:PSS solution for inkjet prinitng, I recommend the work of my former colleagues from KIT, Light technology institute. Just google for the group leaders name, Dr. GerardoHernandez-Sosa.
Cheers,
Sebastian
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