Application of novel materials and fabrication methodology for the manufacture of ammonia-sensing electrodes

Principal Researcher: Dr. Karl Crowley

Inkjet Printing for Sensor Device Manufacture

Inkjet printing is beginning to attract a great deal of attention in the field of sensor device fabrication due to its unique advantages of direct patterning, flexible planar processing, very low cost, high throughput and low material usage. This technology provides opportunities both for significant cost reduction in existing organic devices and for new, pioneering device configurations.

Much of current inkjet printing in the electronics area employs bulk semi-conductor materials (i.e., bulk conducting polymer) as the printing material. The objective of this research is to contribute to the sensor device fabrication field by progressing from bulk polymer solutions to nanoparticulate formulations. Materials engineered at the nanodimension are more advantageous in terms of their processability and enhanced electrochemistry; attractive properties directly applicable to sensor devices. Coupling these novel nanomaterials with the sophisticated patterning technique of inkjet printing will result in a powerful technology capable of achieving commercialisation in many areas, including the focus of this research; low cost, high volume sensor manufacturing.

Our aim is to illustrate the applicability of these sensors to ammonia sensing as this has been identified as a readily addressable commercial need with good opportunities for adoption by the sensor industry.

Posters:

Inkjet printable ammonia-selectiveplatforms for gas and bio-sensing.pdf