Zirconia nano-colloids transfer from continuous hydrothermal synthesis to inkjet printing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the transfer of water-dispersed zirconia nano-colloids from continuous hydrothermal synthesis into inkjet printable inks, achieving high-quality thin film deposition with controlled resolution and densification at relatively low sintering temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a method to produce and tailor zirconia nano-inks from hydrothermal synthesis for inkjet printing, enabling high-resolution thin films with low-temperature sintering.

Findings

Nanoparticles are highly dispersed with 10 nm size.

Inks with varied rheological properties are successfully produced.

High-quality printing with 70 μm lateral and 250 nm thickness resolution is achieved.

Abstract

Water dispersion of nanometric yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) particles synthesized by continuous hydrothermal synthesis are transferred into nanoinks for thin film deposition. YSZ nanoparticles are synthesized in supercritical conditions resulting in highly dispersed crystals of 10 nm in size. The rheology of the colloid is tailored to achieve inkjet printability (Z) by using additives for regulating viscosity and surface tension. Inks with a wide range of properties are produced. A remarkable effect of nanoparticles on the ink printability is registered even at solid load < 1% vol. In particular, nanoparticles hinder the droplet formation at low values of the printability while suitable jetting is observed at high Z values, i.e. Z ca. 20. For the optimized inks, we achieve high quality printing with lateral and thickness resolution of 70 um and ca. 250 nm respectively, as well as self levelling effect with a reduction of the substrate roughness. Densification is achieved at sintering temperatures below 1200 C.