Reactive inkjet printed zinc oxide film processing

Abstract

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is a material with decades of investigation, used in coatings, biochemistry, and electronics. The rise of additive manufacturing and printed electronics shows increased interest in ZnO as a feed material for inkjet printing of multifunctional devices. Within this study, a ZnO precursor, Zinc Acetylacetonate Dihydrate [Zn(AcAc)2], is formulated into a reactive inkjet-printable ink using Hansen Solubility Parameter (HSP), in which the precursor was estimated to possess the parameters (mPa−1/2) δD = 16.5, δP = 9.9, δD = 13.2, and an HSP radius r of 6.5. Processing conditions for the reaction of the precursor into ZnO (thermal, chemical, and UV-irradiative) are investigated to develop in-situ morphological control and tunability of ZnO films.