Combinatorial inking

Devices made from films printed with ink-jet technology have been improved thanks to research undertaken in the Netherlands.

Ink-jet printing has been investigated intensively for solar cell and polyLED fabrication. Now Ulrich Schubert and colleagues from Eindhoven University of Technology, have incorporated ink-jet printing into a combinatorial workflow and improved the quality of printed films. The efficiency and lifetime of the devices produced is linked to the printing quality. In combinatorial materials research it is very important that films and dots can be reliably prepared from solution. Schubert and his team improve printing quality by combining two solvents with different boiling points in the ink and eliminating a ring shaped defect common in these techniques.

Schubert believes that this research could represent a significant step towards rapid investigation of technologically important materials for LEDs and solar cells, and thinks that this is because ink-jet printing opens the way for preparing polymer libraries automatically.

Helen Fletcher