Project Objectives
The overall aim of the BASMATI project is the development of large volume production processes for:
- Conductive inks, based on Cu, Al, Ni, or graphene nanoparticles, and
- Electrochemical inks, based on LFP or NMC nanoparticles.
These nanoparticles (except graphene) and inks will be produced at pilot-scale, and will be compatible with high-throughput printing processes such as inkjet printing and screen printing. The quality of inks will be assessed in a printed Li-ion battery demonstrator.
Special attention will be paid to the application of nanosafety guidelines at every step of the process. Finally, the use of water instead of organic solvents will be investigated during ink development in order to anticipate future REACH requirements.
Project Impact
The project will overcome technological and economic barriers inherent to the availability of inks for printed electronics:
- Supply of low cost Cu and Al conductive inks: reduction of 50% compared with current silver based inks. Availability: production of relevant quantities of electrochemical inks (150 kg/batch) and conductive inks (350 kg/batch).
- Compatibility with high definition printing processes: inks will be usable both for high throughput and high resolution (inkjet) printing technologies (inkjet and screen printing)
- Nanosafety guidance will be carefully applied at all steps of nanoparticles synthesis and introduction in formulations.
- Ink formulations involving water based and non-toxic solvents will be studied.
The project cover two kind of nanomaterials inks:
- Conductive inks (Cu, Al) will be suitable as a low cost alternative to silver for a large range of applications (RFID, photovoltaic, sensors, vehicles, smart packages) and the whole market of these inks has been estimated to $3.36 billion in 2023.
- Electrochemical inks will be targeting printed energy storage applications (printed electrode, thin-film battery). This market will reach a volume $1.9 billion by 2017.
Nanosafety will be carefully introduced in the project protocols thanks to the wide experience of CEA in the field. Existing guidance and good practice documents will be applied and BASMATI will produce Guidance documents and Standard operating procedures that will be shared with a broad audience i.e. NanoSafetyCluster, EU-FP7, H2020 and National projects as well as international harmonization activities to contribute to define the framework for future standardization and legislation.
Guidance documents will be prepared by partners involved in NanosafetyCluster and Nanoreg to ensure safe working conditions as well as minimizing consumer and environmental exposure.
The project consortium brings together the whole industrial value chain covering nanomaterials inks formulation and upscale (nanomaterials suppliers, ink formulators, ink producer, printing equipment manufacturer and end-user). Collaboration between all stakeholders in the value chain will enable a better integration of the different technologies developed in the project facilitating the industrial take-up of ink productions in printed device applications.