Thanks to advances in materials chemistry, researchers have been able to synthesize new materials that allow solution-based processing of next-generation optoelectronic materials

In Printed Electronics, printing technologies are used to produce various kinds of devices, such as electronic circuits, sensors and solar cells. New challenges arise when small scale laboratory processes are transferred to industrially relevant methods.

In the “Functional Thin Film Solution Processing” group, we address scientific and engineering aspects of solution processing, namely

• to overcome the gap between lab-scale sample manufacturing and industrially relevant fabrication technologies. We improve gravure printing as manufacturing technology for printed electronics and slot die coating for up-scaling perovskite solar cell manufacturing.
• to develop novel ink formulations from 2D materials.
• to exploit spontaneous self-assembly related to solvent evaporation to add functionality to wet deposited films. 

Our coating laboratory provides infrastructure, workforce and knowhow for the deposition of functional coatings and protection layers on rigid and flexible substrates used for the fabrication of optical and electronic devices.

Available equipment at the coating laboratory will enable the development of thin film coating solutions up to DIN A5 scale. The laboratory will evaluate, develop and offer the best-suited technology and analytic for a given functional coating.

Recent publications:

T. Guo et al., Large-Area Smooth Conductive Films Enabled by Scalable Slot-Die Coating of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene Aqueous Inks, Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023, 2213183, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202213183

T. Guo et al., Rational Design of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene Inks for Conductive, Transparent Films, ACS Nano 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c11180

S. Deng et al., Unraveling Polysulfide's Adsorption and Electrocatalytic Conversion on Metal Oxides for Li-S Batteries, Advanced Science 2023, 10, 2204930, DOI: 10.1002/advs.202204930

M. Jafarpour et al., Functional Ink Formulation for Printing and Coating of Graphene and Other 2D Materials: Challenges and Solutions, Small Science, 2022, 2, 2200040, DOI: 10.1002/smsc.202200040